«&•  / 


26S28TREMOMTST.a 


GOETHE 


LITTLE  BIOGRAPHIES 


DANTE    .....        By  PAOET  TOYNBEE 
SAVONAROLA  .  .  .  By  E.  L.  S.  HOESBUROH 

JOHN  HOWARD          .  .  By  B.  C.  8.  GIBSON,  D.D. 

SIR  WALTER  RALEIGH       .  By  I.  A.  TAYLOR 

ERASMUS  .  .  .  .        By  E.  F.  H.  CAPEY 

THE  YOUNG  PRETENDER  .  By  C.  8.  TERRY 

ROBERT  BURNS          .  .  .        By  T.  F.  HENDERSON 

ALFRED,  LORD  TENNYSON  .        By  A.  C.  BENSON 
CANNING          .          .          .  By  W.  ALISON  PHILLIPS 

CHATHAM         .  .  .  By  A.  8.  MC-DOWALL 

GOETHE .  .  .        By  H.  G.  ATKINS 

BEACONSFIELD  .  By  W.  SICHEL 


JOHANN    WOLFGANG 
GOETHE 


BY 

H.   G.   ATKINS 


WITH     SIXTEEN     ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK:   E.  P.  DUTTON  &  CO. 

LONDON  :    METHUEN  &  CO. 

1904 


PREFACE 

THIS  short  biography  of  Goethe  is  intended 
to  deal  rather  with  the  author's  life  than 
with  his  works.  As,  however,  the  works  of 
Goethe  are  perhaps  more  intimately  bound  up 
with  his  life  than  is  the  case  with  any  other  of 
the  world's  greatest  writers,  being,  as  he  himself 
declared,  "fragments  of  a  great  confession,"  his 
writings,  and  especially  the  more  directly  auto- 
biographical among  them,  form  one  of  our  chief 
sources  of  information  concerning  his  life,  and  of 
elucidation  of  the  motives  that  govern  it.  The 
length  of  the  different  sections  is  not  regulated 
by  the  number  of  years  comprised,  but  is  deter- 
mined rather  by  the  degree  of  external  movement 
and  interest  of  the  several  periods. 

The  chief  biographies  of  Goethe  are  given  in 
the  brief  bibliographical  note  at  the  end  of  the 
volume.  The  source  of  quotations  is  given  at  the 
foot  of  the  page. 

The  translations  are  throughout  my  own. 

H.  G.  A. 


2081314 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

NATIVE   TOWN   AND   PARENTAGE 

I'AGB 

Goethe's  Paternal  Grandparents — Schultheiss  Textor 
— Goethe's  Father — Goethe's  Mother — Frank- 
fort in  the  Eighteenth  Century — Goethefeier  in 
Frankfort  on  August  28,  1899  -  -  -  i 


CHAPTER  II 

BOYHOOD 

Goethe's  Birth — Goethe  House  in  the  Grosze  Hirsch- 
graben — First  Years  —  Rebuilding  of  Goethe 
House  —  School-fellows  —  Cornelia  —  Father's 
System  of  Education  —  Mother's  Influence  — 
Seven  Years'  War — French  Occupation — Count 
Thoranc — German  Artists — French  Theatre — 
Derones — Language  Studies — Hebrew  and  the 
Bible — Youthful  Poems — The  Frankfort  Gret- 
chen — Coronation  of  Joseph  II. — In  Disgrace  -  16 
vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  III 

LEIPSIC 

PAGE 

Lodgings  in  the  Feuerkugel — Law  Studies — Leipsic 
Taste  and  Fashion — German  Dialects — Frau 
Bohme — Gottsched  —  Gellert  —  Lessing  —  Oeser 
and  Art  Studies  —  Laokoon  —  Dresden  Galleries 
— Johann  Georg  Schlosser — Kathchen  Schonkopf 
— Die  Laune  des  Verliebten —  Die  Mitschuldigen 
— Leipsic  Lieder — Annette — Behrisch — Horn — 
Impaired  Health 38 

CHAPTER  IV 

HOME   AGAIN 

Return  to  Frankfort — The  Family  Greeting — Friiu- 
lein  von  Klettenberg — Continued  Ill-health— 
Old  Leipsic  Friends — Convalescence-  -  -  61 

CHAPTER  V 

STRASBURG 

First  Impressions  of  Strasburg — Kramergasse — Jung 
Stilling — Salzmann — Other  Friends — Herder — 
Widened  Literary  Horizon — Sesenheim  and  the 
Brion  Family — Friederike — Parting  -  -  -  67 

CHAPTER  VI 

STORM   AND   STRESS 

Return  to  Frankfort — The  Brothers  Schlosser — 
Cornelia — The  Literary  Circle  in  Darmstadt — 


CONTENTS  ix 

PAGE 

Merck  —  Gb'tz  von  Berlichingen  —  Wetzlar  — 
Kestner — Lotte  Buff — Departure  from  Wetzlar 
— Jerusalem — Publication  of  Werther — Werther- 
fieber — Last  Years  in  Frankfort — Clavigo — Faust 
Beginnings — Famous  Friends — Basedow,  Lavater 
and  Klopstock — First  Meeting  with  Karl  August 
— Lili  Schonemann — The  Stolbergs  and  Switzer- 
land— Egmont — Last  Days  in  Frankfort  -  -  81 


CHAPTER  VII 

YEARS   OF     SERVICE 

Weimar  of  To-day — Weimar  in  the  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury— Anna  Amalia — The  Duke  Karl  August 
— The  Duchess  Luise — Prince  Constantine — 
Knehel — Reception  in  Weimar — Goethe  at  Six- 
and-Twenty — Goethe  and  the  Duke — Weimar's 
Storm  and  Stress — Klopstock's  Exhortations — 
Goethe  in  the  Service  of  the  State — Herder's 
Appointment  at  Weimar — Frau  von  Stein — 
Harzreise  im  Winter — Beginnings  of  Wilhelm 
Meister — Second  Journey  to  Switzerland — Sesen- 
heim  revisited — Iphlgenie — Scientific  Studies — 
Various  Poems — Flight  to  Italy  -  104 

CHAPTER  VIII 

ITALY 

Intellectual  Rebirth — The  Way  to  Rome — Iphigenie 
completed  —  Naples  —  Sicily  —  Second  Time  in 
Rome — Completion  of  Egmont — Other  Fruits 
of  the  Italian  Period  -  -  -  -  -  121 


x  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  IX 

BACK    IN    WEIMAR 

PAGE 

Weimar  seen  with  Italian  Eyes — Christiane  Vulpius 
— Goethe  as  Director  of  the  Weimar  Theatre — 
Military  Excursions  —  Komische  Elegien — Tasso 
— Inspiration  of  the  French  Revolution — Scien- 
tific Writings — Collected  Works  -  -  -  127 


CHAPTER  X 

FRIENDSHIP   WITH    SCHILLER 

Second  Youth — Previous  Relations — Schiller's  Horen, 
and  Final  Conclusion  of  Friendship — Goethe's 
Contributions  —  The  Xenienkampf —  Wilhelm 
Meisters  Lehrjahre  —  Briefwechsel  —  Hermann 
und  Dorothea — The  Ealladenjahr — Third  Jour- 
ney to  Switzerland — Schiller  settled  in  Weimar 
— The  Propylden — Madame  de  Stael — Illness  of 
Goethe  and  Schiller — Schiller's  Death  -  -  134 


CHAPTER  XI 


War  Troubles — Death  of  Goethe's  Mother — Bettina 
Brentano  —  Minna  Herzlieb  —  Wahl<ver<wandt- 
schaften — Meeting  with  Napoleon — Die  Farben- 
lehre — Other  Scientific  Works — Autobiographi- 
cal Writings — Dichtung  und  Wahrheit — West- 
ostlicher  Divan — Death  of  Christiane  —  The 
Patriarch  of  Weimar — Kunst  und  Altertum  — 
Last  Editions  of  his  Works — Wilhelm  Meisters 


CONTENTS  xi 

PAGE 

Wanderjahre  —  Moralizing  Poetry — Carlsbad — 
Marienbad  —  Ulrike  von  Levetzow  —  Marien- 
bader  Elegie  —  Eckermann  —  Gesprdche  mit 
Goethe — Death  of  Charlotte  von  Stein,  Karl 
August,  the  Duchess  Luise,  and  his  Son  August 
— Ausgabe  Letzter  Hand — Completion  of  Faust — 
Last  Birthday — The  End — Goethe's  Ideals  and 
Achievements — His  Place  among  the  World's 
Writers  ----..--  149 

BIBLIOGRAPHY       -        -    -     •> •       -        -        -        -  172 

INDEX  -        -        -         -•    '  •- •  '•'     -        -        -        -  175 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


1.  Goethe  (after  Rauctis  bust)         -         -       Frontispiece 

2.  Frankfort  in  the   Eighteenth  Century 

(from  the  "  Universal  Traveller  ")  -     to  face  p.     12 

3.  Goethe  Monument  in  Frankfort  (un- 

veiled August  28,  1899)           -         -  „  14 

4.  Goethe  House  in  Frankfort         -         -  „  16 

5.  The  Romer  in  Frankfort    ...  „  34 

6.  Auerbachs  Keller  in  Leipsic  (after  Schroedter)  „  39 

7.  Gotz  von  Berlichingen  (after  Siilke)     -  „  83 

8.  Lotte  Buff  (after  Kaulbach)         -         -  „  86 

9.  Gartenhaus  in  Weimar  (from  "  Weimar 

in  Wort  und  BUd")          -         •         -  „  105 

10.  Goethe     aged     Twenty  -  nine     (after 

May's  oil-painting)  -         -         -         •  „  109 

11.  Frau  von  Stein  (from  "  Weimar  in  Wort 

und  Bild ")     -         -         -         -         -  „  114 

12.  Goethe     House     in     Weimar     (from 

"  Weimar  in  Wort  und  Bild")  -         -  „  127 

13.  Schiller  (after  Schule)  „  134 

14.  Goethe    and    Schiller    Monument    in 

Weimar   (from    "  Weimar   in    Wort 

und  Bild ")     -----  ,,148 

15.  Goethe  aged  Seventy-nine  (by  Stieler)  „  155 

1 6.  Gretchen  (after  Felhier)      -         -         -  „  164 


LIFE    OF    GOETHE 

CHAPTER  I 

NATIVE  TOWN  AND  PARENTAGE 

ON  February  28,  1687,  there  settled  in  the 
imperial  free  city  of  Frankfort-on-the- 
Maine  a  man  who,  coming  there  to  seek  a  modest 
livelihood  by  the  exercise  of  his  craft,  was  destined 
to  be  the  means  of  conferring  on  the  city  he 
entered  thus  humbly  its  proudest  claim  to  dis- 
tinction. 

This  was  the  journeyman  tailor,  Frederich 
Georg  Goethe,  from  the  little  Thuringian  town 
of  Artern-on-the-Unstrut,  son  of  the  farrier,  Hans 
Christian  Goethe,  who,  after  the  completion  of  his 
apprenticeship  and  after  long  wanderings,  came 
at  last,  in  his  thirtieth  year,  to  Frankfort,  and 
there  established  himself. 

The  master-tailor  with  whom  he  found  employ- 
1 


2  LIPE  OF  GOETHE 

ment  was  Sebastian  Lutz,  and  on  April  15  of  the 
same  year  Goethe  married  his  daughter,  Anna 
Elizabeth.  Of  the  children  of  this  first  marriage 
none  survived,  and  in  1705,  five  years  after  the 
death  of  the  first  wife,  Goethe  took  as  his  second 
wife  Cornelia  Schellhorn,  the  daughter  of  a  tailor, 
and  widow  of  the  host  of  the  inn  Zum  Weidenhof, 
who  was  then  in  her  thirty-sixth  year.  The 
widower  had  already  in  1704  a  fortune  which  placed 
him  among  the  ratepayers  of  the  first  class ;  the 
widow's  fortune  was  more  than  half  as  large  as  his 
own,  and  after  the  death,  in  the  year  of  their 
marriage,  of  her  father,  the  master-tailor  Walter, 
who  was  also  assessed  at  the  highest  rating,  she 
received  in  addition  a  third  of  his  considerable 
fortune.  Thus  the  material  prosperity  of  the 
family  was  very  firmly  established,  and  when  the 
man  who,  forty-three  years  before,  had  entered  the 
gates  of  Frankfort  as  a  young  tailor,  with  no  other 
outfit  than  his  prospects,  and,  as  it  would  appear, 
an  attractive  manner  with  his  fellow-men,  and  a 
not  unreciprocated  regard  for  the  opposite  sex, 
died  at  Frankfort  in  1730,  it  was  as  one  of  its 
wealthiest  inhabitants. 

To  judge  by  contemporary  evidence,  he  would 
appear  to  have  been  a  man  of  extremely  agreeable, 
even  courtly  manners,  very  fond  of  music,  and 
himself  a  more  than  average  performer.  That  he 
was  alive  to  the  advantages  of  education  is  shown 


NATIVE  TOWN  AND  PARENTAGE   3 

by  the  fact  that  he  gave  his  youngest  son  an 
education  of  the  best  the  time  afforded,  including 
travels  which  comprised  an  extended  tour  in 
Italy.  The  trait  in  his  character  which  rendered 
him  disagreeable  to  some  was  a  pride  which  is 
understandable,  if  not  excusable,  in  the  man 
who  had  so  successfully  fashioned  his  own  career. 
He  it  probably  was  who  took  up  into  his  coat-of- 
arms  the  three  lyres  which  the  poet's  father  still 
bore. 

Of  Frederic  Georg  Goethe  we  have  spoken 
at  some  length,  for  he  is  the  real  founder  of 
the  family,  and  the  man  who  made  possible 
the  achievements  by  which  his  grandson  was  to 
render  illustrious  both  his  name  and  his  adopted 
city. 

His  wife  Cornelia  survived  him,  and,  though  she 
was  eighty  years  of  age  at  the  poet's  birth,  lived 
to  form  one  of  the  happiest  recollections  of  his 
youth.  Of  the  three  children  of  this  second 
marriage  the  youngest  was  Johann  Caspar,  who 
was  born  at  Frankfort  in  1710,  and  died  there  in 
1782.  Like  his  father,  he  was  fond  of  music, 
while  he  had  received  the  most  careful  of 
educations. 

From  the  Coburg  Gymnasium  he  had  gone  to 

Leipsic  to  study  law,  graduated  with  distinction 

at  Giessen,  and  practised  at  the  Supreme  Court 

(Reichskammergericht}   at    Wetzlar.       As    we  have 

1—2 


4  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

seen,  he  travelled  considerably  for  those  days,  and 
on  his  return  he  offered  his  services  to  his  native 
town,  which  he  honestly  believed  he  could  serve 
to  advantage,  in  consideration  of  his  legal  know- 
ledge and  the  experience  derived  from  his  travels. 
When  the  offer  was  declined,  he  withdrew  entirely 
from  public  life,  and,  the  more  effectually  to 
preclude  the  possibility  of  ever  participating  in 
the  administration  of  the  city,  acquired  the  title 
of  an  Imperial  Councillor.  To  quote  his  son's 
words : 

"  Immediately  upon  his  return  from  his  travels, 
my  father  had,  in  accordance  with  his  own  char 
acteristic  views,  conceived  the  idea,  in  order  to 
fit  himself  for  the  service  of  the  city,  of  under- 
taking one  of  the  subordinate  offices,  and  perform- 
ing its  duties  without  emolument,  provided  it  were 
conferred  upon  him  without  ballot.  He  character- 
istically believed,  according  to  the  conception 
which  he  had  of  himself,  and  in  the  consciousness 
of  his  good  intentions,  that  he  deserved  such  a 
distinction,  which,  indeed,  was  neither  legal  nor 
traditional.  Accordingly,  when  his  request  was 
refused,  he  was  vexed  and  angry,  and  swore  never 
to  accept  any  position  whatsoever,  and,  in  order  to 
render  it  impossible,  procured  for  himself  the  title 
of  an  Imperial  Councillor,  which  the  Mayor  and 
the  oldest  Alderman  bore  as  a  special  title  of 
distinction.  Thereby  he  had  made  himself  the 


NATIVE  TOWN  AND  PARENTAGE   5 

equal  of  the  highest,  and  could  not  begin  again 
from  the  lowest  rung."* 

And  in  the  same  place  his  son  proceeds  :  "  The 
same  motive  induced  him  to  become  a  suitor  for 
the  hand  of  the  daughter  of  the  Mayor,  whereby 
he  became  in  consideration  of  this,  too,  excluded 
from  the  council." 

This  daughter  of  the  chief  magistrate,  whom 
Johann  Caspar  Goethe  married  on  August  20, 
1788,  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight — as  we  gather, 
rather  from  prudential  than  sentimental  motives 
— was  Catherine  Elizabeth  Textor,  the  seventeen- 
year-old  daughter  of  Johann  Wolfgang  Textor, 
who  the  year  before  had  been  somewhat  unex- 
pectedly raised  to  the  highest  dignity  of  the 
imperial  city.  The  Schultheiss  Dr.  Textor  seems 
to  have  been  a  peace  -  loving,  dignified,  unas- 
suming old  Conservative,  for  whom  the  routine 
of  his  office  and  dignity  had  less  attraction  than 
the  care  of  the  old  garden  which  is  so  beautifully 
described  in  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,}  and  which 
was  the  paradise  of  his  two  grandchildren  as  well 
as  the  scene  of  the  old  man's  constant  attention 
and  activity. 

Any  description  of  Goethe's  parents   at   once 

*  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  II.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvi.,  p.  112  et  seq. 

•f  Ibid.,  Boole  I.,  Weimar  edition,  vol.  xxvi.,  p.  55 
et  stq. 


6  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

recalls  the  famous  lines  in  which  he  himself 
analyses,  as  it  were,  the  constituents  of  his  own 
being,  and  which  may  be  freely  rendered  as 
follows  : 

"  My  father's  I  in  mind  and  frame, 

The  order-loving  Tory  ; 
From  mother  dear  my  glad  heart  came, 

And  love  to  spin  a  story. 
If  grandsire  was  a  gallant  bold, 

There's  fire  still  in  the  embers  $ 
If  grandam  loved  display  and  gold — 

Why,  that's  still  in  the  members. 
And  if  these  parts  then,  after  all, 

No  human  skill  can  sunder, 
How  such  a  fellow  can  you  call 

Original,  I  wonder  ?"* 

His  father  was  earnest,  even  pedantic,  and 
lacking  in  that  Getiia/itaf  which  was  so  pronounced 
in  the  host  of  the  Weidenhof.  Yet  we  must  not 
underestimate  the  importance  of  his  training  and 
influence  when  considering  the  son's  develop- 
ment. 

"  It  is  a  pious  wish  of  all  fathers  to  see  realized 
in  their  sons  what  they  have  themselves  missed, 
almost  as  though  they  lived  for  the  second  time, 
and  wished  this  second  time  to  take  due  advantage 
of  the  experiences  of  the  first.  In  the  conscious- 
ness of  his  own  learning,  confiding  in  his  own 

*  Weimar  edition,  vol.  iii.,  p.  368  (Za/ime  Xenien,  vi.). 


NATIVE  TOWN  AND  PARENTAGE   7 

power  of  persistence,  and  in  distrust  of  the 
teachers  of  his  day,  the  father  resolved  to  instruct 
his  children  himself,  and  only  in  so  far  as  appeared 
necessary  to  have  individual  lessons  given  by 
special  masters."* 

This  desire  to  give  his  children,  and,  for  the 
matter  of  that,  in  the  first  years  of  their  married 
life,  his  wife,  too,  those  educational  advantages 
which  he  had  himself  acquired  with  such  effort 
and  prized  so  highly,  was  a  trait  of  his  sterling 
but  over-earnest  character,  which  appears  later  to 
have  developed  into  a  somewhat  morose  pedantry, 
and  undue,  almost  tyrannous,  insistence  upon 
details,  which,  while  leaving  him  the  respect, 
deprived  him  of  the  love  of  his  family. 

This  side  of  his  character  Meyer  thus  describes : 
"  Love  of  order  is  his  most  prominent  characteristic. 
In  his  house,  in  his  collections,  in  the  education  of 
his  children,  it  manifests  itself,  often  in  unneces- 
sary exactitude.  One  trait  alone  brings  into  this 
morally  irreproachable  life  a  breath  of  poetry — the 
grateful  remembrance  of  the  one  event  of  his 
life,  a  journey  to  Italy.  As  often  happens  with  a 
pedantic  spirit,  for  which  every  breath  that  blows 
may  easily  disturb  the  painfully  established  order, 
there  early  becomes  pronounced  a  certain  intoler- 
ance, now  in  the  form  of  domineering,  now  of 

*  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  I.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvi.,  pp.  44,  45. 


8  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

caprice.  He  cannot  understand  his  wife,  only  for 
a  brief  space  is  he  the  confidant  of  his  son,  with 
his  daughter  he  lives  at  feud.  At  last  he  sits 
almost  unheeded  for  years,  lonely  and  discon- 
tented, in  his  corner,  and  dies  as  an  old  man  of 
seventy-two,  almost  unmourned."* 

Little  sign  indeed  of  the  spark  of  genius  in 
this  morose  and  formal  man  !  He  did  his  best  to 
convert  his  risen  family  into  the  best  of  bourgeois 
— good,  honest,  peace-loving,  and  law-abiding, 
with  a  due  understanding  of,  and  a  correct  love  for, 
literature  and  the  arts,  but  bourgeois  all  the  same. 
And  when  his  son  turned  out  a  genius,  for  whom 
the  cage  thus  carefully  constructed  was  so  small 
and  cramping  that  he  broke  its  bars  and  flew 
away,  it  was  a  bitter  disappointment,  and  one 
that  no  triumphs  in  another  sphere  could  atone 
for. 

What  a  different  picture  when  we  turn  to  the 
poet's  mother !  Little  more  than  a  child  when 
married,  and  only  eighteen  when  her  eldest  son 
was  born,  she  poured  out  upon  that  son  of  her 
youth  all  the  affection  of  a  young  girl  who  had 
no  other  outlet  for  her  natural  craving  for  loving 
and  being  loved.  That  her  formal  marriage  with 
a  man  twenty  years  her  senior  did  not  develop 
into  one  of  affection  is,  under  the  circumstances, 
easily  to  be  understood.  "I  and  my  Wolfgang 
*  Richard  M.  Meyer,  Goethe,  p.  6. 


NATIVE  TOWN  AND  PARENTAGE   9 

have  always  held  fast  to  each  other,  because  we 
were  both  young  together,"  she  said. 

Bright,  happy,  optimistic  good-nature  and  love 
of  her  kind,  coupled  with  a  ready  mother-wit  and 
a  quickness  of  the  senses  and  perceptions,  rather 
than  a  delight  in  the  abstract  operations  of  the 
intellect,  were  her  main  characteristics,  while  the 
creative  side  of  her  son's  genius  was  already  fore- 
shadowed in  her  talent  for  story-telling  and  the 
graphic,  if  somewhat  homely  and  ungrammatical, 
vigour  of  her  pen.  As  she  charmed  her  friends 
and  her  children  in  these  early  years,  so  later  on 
she  became  the  loved  and  honoured  friend  of 
some  of  the  highest  in  the  land.  Altogether 
"  Frau  Aja,"  as  she  was  christened  after  an  old 
ballad,  is  one  of  the  most  genial,  cheery,  pleasant, 
and  sympathetic  figures  to  be  met  with  in  the 
history  of  German  or  any  other  literature,  and  one 
that  seems  to  us,  as  we  look  back  on  the  many 
blended  qualities  of  her  full  and  happy  life,  the 
very  ideal  of  a  poet's  mother.  And  we  cannot  do 
better  in  conclusion  than  give  her  "  philosophy," 
as  summed  up  in  her  own  words  : 

"  I  have  the  grace  from  God,  that  no  human 
soul  ever  went  away  from  me  discontented,  what- 
ever the  age  or  rank  might  be.  I  love  my 
fellow-men,  and  that  young  and  old  alike  feel ; 
pass  without  pretension  through  the  world,  and 
that  pleases  all  Eve's  sons  and  daughters ;  be- 


io  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

moralize  nobody,  always  try  to  look  for  the  good 
side,  and  leave  the  bad  one  to  Him  who  created 
mankind,  and  who  understands  best  how  to  round 
off  the  corners ;  and  on  this  plan  I  live  well, 
happy,  and  contented."  Such  she  was,  and  such 
she  remained  up  to  a  ripe  old  age,  happy  in  her 
round  of  duties  and  her  comfortable  domestic 
circle,  and  living  in  the  life  and  triumphing  in  the 
triumphs  of  her  Hatschelhans,  her  darling ;  and 
when  she  passed  quietly  away  in  1808  at  the  age 
of  seventy-seven,  she  was  mourned  as  a  personal 
friend  by  the  wide  and  varied  circle  of  those 
whose  enthusiastic  friendship  and  love  her  endear- 
ing qualities  had  won. 

So  much  for  Goethe's  ancestry  and  parentage. 
Before  proceeding  to  the  story  of  his  life,  a  few 
words  must  be  said  about  the  city  of  his  birth. 
He  did  not  leave  his  native  town  before  its 
influences  had  had  time  to  make  their  impression 
upon  him.  Consciously  and  unconsciously  they 
were  among  the  most  important  factors  in  his 
development  in  youth  and  early  manhood,  and 
not  the  least  interesting  part  of  his  autobiography 
is  the  attempt  to  give,  from  the  vantage-ground  of 
distance  and  a  ripened  experience,  an  appreciation 
of  the  value  of  those  early  impressions. 

In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
anomalous  position  of  the  German  imperial  cities, 
in  their  relation  to  the  State,  was  one  of  the  most 


NATIVE  TOWN  AND  PARENTAGE  n 

fruitful  sources  of  feud  and  disturbance.  In 
Frankfort  there  was  a  chronic  quarrel  between 
the  Council  of  the  city  and  the  Emperor.  The 
Mayor  had  originally  been  Governor  of  the  city  in 
the  interests  of  the  Emperor,  but,  after  several 
times  acquiring  by  way  of  pledge  the  right  of 
having  an  independent  Mayor,  the  town  had 
finally,  in  1372,  purchased  this  privilege,  and  the 
Mayor  became  the  first  officer  of  the  city,  lifelong 
President  of  the  Council,  and,  since  the  time  of 
Charles  VII.,  by  virtue  of  his  position  Imperial 
Councillor  (Kaiserlicher  Rat). 

In  addition  to  this  state  of  contention  between 
the  city  and  outside  authority,  there  existed 
dissensions  within  the  city  itself,  especially  between 
the  "  patricians  "  and  the  guilds.  The  patricians, 
consisting  of  nobles  from  the  surrounding  country, 
who  had  settled  in  the  town  and  who  had  assimi- 
lated some  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  citizen 
class,  had  at  one  time  enjoyed  exclusively  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  power  ;  but  gradually,  and 
owing  especially  to  the  disturbing  influence  of 
times  of  trouble  and  strife,  democratic  elements 
had  been  added  to  the  governing  body,  so  that 
the  constitution  became  so  complex  as  not  easily 
to  admit  of  a  simple  definition,  and  we  find  it 
variously  described  as  a  "modified  aristocracy," 
and  as  being  a  "  compound  of  aristocracy  and 
democracy." 


12  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

For  a  description  of  the  town  itself  at  this 
period,  we  cannot  do  better  than  give  in  Goethe's 
own  words  the  impressions  it  made  upon  him  as  he 
roamed  its  streets  in  his  early  boyhood : 

"What  attracted  the  attention  of  the  child 
more  than  all  was  the  many  little  towns  within  the 
town,  the  fortresses  within  the  fortress — that  is  to 
say,  the  walled-in  convent  precincts,  and  the  more 
or  less  castle-like  places  surviving  from  former 
centuries.  .  .  .  There  was  nothing  of  architectural 
grandeur  to  be  seen  in  Frankfort  in  those  days  : 
everything  pointed  to  a  distant  past,  which  had 
been  very  unsettled  both  for  town  and  district. 
Gates  and  towers,  which  marked  the  boundary  of 
the  old  town ;  then  farther  off  gates  again,  towers, 
walls,  bridges,  ramparts,  ditches,  with  which  the 
new  town  was  surrounded — everything  told  only 
too  clearly  that  the  necessity  of  securing  safety  to 
the  community  in  unsettled  times  had  called  these 
institutions  into  existence,  that  the  squares  and 
streets,  even  the  new  ones,  which  were  wider  and 
finer,  all  owed  their  origin  to  chance  and  caprice 
and  to  no  controlling  spirit."* 

It  was  in  such  a  city,  in  which  the  com- 
mercialism of  the  present  jostled  the  feudalism  of 
the  past,  where  the  life  of  to-day,  with  its  busy 
trade  and  its  practical  utilitarianism,  was  found 

*  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  I.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvi.,  p.  23  et  seq. 


NATIVE  TOWN  AND  PARENTAGE    13 

side  by  side  with  the  monuments  and  memories  of 
bygone  days,  while  its  inhabitants  were  not  un- 
conscious of  their  dignity  and  independence  as 
members  of  an  "  imperial  free  city,"  that  Ger- 
many's greatest  poet  was  born,  and  spent  the 
years  of  his  impressionable  boyhood  and  youth. 
And  when  we  add  to  this  that  the  town  contained 
also  in  its  Jews'  quarter  an  alien  Oriental  element, 
where  the  rites  and  habits  of  an  entirely  different 
age  and  civilization  remained  almost  intact  and 
without  admixture  ;  and  remember,  too,  the  yearly 
fairs  which  brought  into  the  town  a  motley  crowd, 
both  Jew  and  Gentile,  from  the  four  corners  of 
the  empire  and  beyond,  we  see  the  many-coloured 
picture  of  life  that  unrolled  itself  before  the  eyes 
of  the  inquisitive  and  wandering  child,  and,  stimu- 
lating his  wakening  intelligence,  developed  in 
him  the  germs  of  that  cosmopolitanism  and  univer- 
sality which  is  one  of  his  most  distinguishing 
characteristics. 

Such  were  the  conditions  of  time,  place,  and 
circumstance,  into  which  Goethe  was  to  be  born, 
and  it  is  apparent  that  they  were  on  the  whole 
very  favourable.  Before  leaving  this  part  of  our 
subject,  however,  and  our  consideration  of  the 
town  into  which  the  poet  was  born  on  August  28, 
1749,  we  might  perhaps  look  into  the  future,  and 
see  how  the  "  imperial  free  city  "  was  one  day  to 


14  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

look  upon  that  date  as  the  one  most  worthy  of 
celebration  in  all  its  long  annals. 

One  hundred  and  fifty  years  afterwards,  on 
August  28,  1899,  we  saw  Frankfort — a  Frankfort 
sevenfold  increased  in  numbers — rise  up  with  one 
consent  to  do  him  honour,  and  the  eyes  of  the 
cultured  world  directed  to  the  city  of  his  birth, 
and  watching  with  approval  the  homage  she  pays 
to  "  her  greatest  son." 

What  gives  to  Goethe  for  the  student  a  special 
and  peculiar  interest  is  the  fact  that  he  is  the  only 
one  in  that  succession  of  the  greatest  of  the  ages 
—  among  whom  there  is  claimed  for  him  a  place — at 
whose  birth  he  can  be  present,  whose  develop- 
ment he  can  follow,  with  whom  he  can  wander 
through  the  years  of  his  wonderful  boyhood  among 
the  scenes  and  in  the  streets  of  the  picturesque 
old  city  of  his  birth,  whom  he  can  watch  in  the 
making  both  from  within  and  from  without,  both 
from  his  own  confessions  and  from  the  manifesta- 
tions of  himself  which  formed  the  man  his  friends 
could  see  in  him.  For  such  a  student  the  town  of 
Frankfort  becomes  a  centre  of  absorbing  interest, 
and  the  festival  held  there  in  celebration  of  the 
hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  poet's 
birth  a  phenomenon  of  the  greatest  significance. 

"To  think  that  he  was  only  a  poet,"  was  re- 
marked by  one  who  was  struck  by  the  wonderful 
enthusiasm  of  all  classes,  and  in  that  remark  the 


GOETHE   MONUMENT    IN    FRANKFORT 


NATIVE  TOWN  AND  PARENTAGE    15 

right  note  was  happily,  if  unconsciously,  given. 
That  was,  indeed,  the  real  significance  of  the  won- 
derful demonstration  called  forth  in  his  proud  and 
most  truly  appreciative  native  town.  It  was  not 
a  movement  behind  which  lay  any  political  signifi- 
cance, it  was  not  promoted  by  any  one  at  all  in  the 
interests  of  any  other,  it  was  not  the  work  of  a 
class  within  the  community — it  was  a  great  and 
spontaneous  outburst  of  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
whole  population  of  a  great  and  flourishing,  and 
to  a  great  extent  mercantile,  city,  in  their  pride  at 
having  given  to  the  world  a  treasure  beyond  price 


CHAPTER  II 


the   28th  °f  AuSust>  1749>  with  the 
stroke  of  noon,  I  came  into  the  world  at 

Frankfort-on-the-Maine."  With  these  character- 
istic words  Goethe  opens  his  famous  autobiography. 
At  first  the  child  was  taken  for  dead,  and  it  was 
only  after  moments  of  anxiety  and  the  application 
of  every  care  that  the  grandmother  could  call  to 
the  mother  :  "  Riitin,  er  lebt  !" 

The  house  in  the  Grosze  Hirschgraben  where 
he  was  born  lived  in  Goethe's  memory  as  "  an  old 
house,  consisting  really  of  two  houses  thrown  into 
one.  A  tower-like  staircase  led  to  disconnected 
rooms,  and  the  inequality  of  the  floors  was  cor- 
rected by  steps.  For  us  children,  a  younger  sister 
and  myself,  the  favourite  resort  was  the  big,  roomy 
hall  below,  which  had  by  the  door  a  big  wooden 
lattice-work,  by  means  of  which  one  came  into 
direct  connection  with  the  street  and  the  outside 
world.  Such  a  bird-cage,  with  which  many  houses 
were  provided,  was  called  a  Geriims.  There  the 
16 


GOETHE    HOUSE    IN    FRANKFORT 


BOYHOOD  17 

women  sat  to  sew  and  knit ;  there  the  cook  picked 
her  salad  ;  thence  the  neighbours  carried  on  their 
conversations.  And  these  Geramse  gave  the  streets 
in  the  fine  season  of  the  year  a  Southern  appear- 
ance."* 

On  this  part  of  the  house — the  big,  half-open 
hall  on  the  ground-floor  serving  the  most  varied 
purposes,  often  coachhouse,  storehouse,  workplace, 
and  playground  in  one,  and  which  the  Goethe 
house  had  in  common  with  all  old  Frankfort,  and, 
indeed,  all  old  German  houses — the  old  man's 
memory  seems  to  dwell  in  after-years  with  special 
fondness,  and  the  thought  of  it  brings  back  the 
remembrance  of  many  happy  hours  of  childhood 
spent  there,  and,  too,  of  many  a  prank,  some  of 
which  cost  his  indulgent  parents  dear. 

In  this  old  house  the  boy  spent  the  years  of 
his  early  childhood,  in  a  family  consisting,  besides 
father  and  mother,  of  a  younger  sister,  Cornelia, 
and  her  namesake,  the  aged  grandmother  Goethe. 
To  the  grandmother's  room,  a  big  apartment  at 
the  back  of  the  house,  the  two  children  made 
their  way  for  play  when  lessons  were  over,  and  to 
her  chair  or  her  bedside  they  carried  their  con- 
fidences, and  received  from  her  the  petting  which 
she  was  only  too  ready  to  give.  One  of  her 
presents  was  of  more  than  passing  interest  for  its 

*  Dichtung'm  und  Wahrheit,  Book  I.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvi.,  p.  12. 
2 


1 8  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

recipient,  and  gave  the  first  incitement  to  the 
dramatic  impulse  of  the  precocious  child.  This 
was  the  puppet-show  with  which  she  presented 
them,  after  having  surprised  them  with  a  per- 
formance on  the  Christmas  Eve  of  1753,  and  so 
"created  a  new  world  in  the  old  house." 

This  most  important  of  all  the  kind  old  grand- 
mother's presents  was  also  the  last,  for  from  that 
time  she  grew  weaker  and  weaker,  and  when  she 
finally  passed  away  her  loss  was  hardly  noticeable 
to  the  two  children,  as  for  some  time  before  she 
had  disappeared  from  their  little  world. 

Her  death,  however,  marked  an  epoch  in  their 
lives  in  another  way ;  for  it  was  the  signal  for  the 
commencement  of  that  rebuilding  of  the  old  house 
which  the  son  had  only  postponed  out  of  con- 
sideration for  her.  That  work,  for  which  all  pre- 
parations had  already  been  made  in  advance,  was 
now  taken  in  hand  without  delay,  and  the  building 
commenced  which  is  essentially  the  Goethehaus  of 
Frankfort  to-day. 

This  big  undertaking,  which,  in  spite  of  the 
characteristic  regularity  with  which  the  work  was 
carried  on,  nevertheless  compelled  the  father  to 
give  up  the  idea  of  continuing  uninterrupted  the 
education  of  the  children,  meant  for  the  two  in- 
separable playmates  a  time  of  relaxed  studies,  a 
time  of  delight,  with  infinite  possibilities  in  the 
way  of  swings  and  seesaws — a  time  when  the 


BOYHOOD  19 

supervision  of  interfering  elders  was  partly  re- 
moved, and  the  youthful  mind  had  a  chance  of 
putting  into  practice  its  own  ideas  of  self-develop- 
ment and  education. 

Sent  to  a  public  school,  the  boy  enjoyed  much 
freedom  in  the  society  of  his  schoolfellows,  and 
rapidly  widened  his  experience  both  of  good  and 
bad.  "At  this  time  it  was,"  he  recounts,  "that  I 
really  first  learnt  to  know  the  city  of  my  birth, 
roaming  to  and  fro  in  it,  as  I  did,  more  and  more 
freely  and  unrestrainedly,  partly  alone,  and  partly 
with  merry  playmates."  Still,  in  spite  of  the 
greater  freedom  enjoyed,  and  the  new  friends  of 
his  own  age  and  sex  which  he  made,  the  one 
inseparable  companion  of  his  boyhood,  the  sharer 
of  all  his  joys  and  sorrows,  and  the  one  to  whom 
all  the  dreams  and  ambitions  of  his  budding 
genius  were  confided,  was  his  sister.  The  second 
child,  and  the  only  one  besides  Wolfgang  to 
survive  early  childhood,  Cornelia  was  born  in 
December,  1750,  and  till  her  death,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-seven,  all  the  affection  of  her  somewhat 
peculiar  nature  was  lavished  upon  her  brilliant 
brother. 

The  fates  had  made  a  very  unequal  distribution 
between  the  two  in  respect  of  gifts  both  of  body 
and  mind.  Cornelia,  though  not  without  a  certain 
dignity  and  power  of  commanding  the  respect  of 
her  fellows,  possessed  neither  beauty  nor  charm 
2—2 


zo  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

of  person,  and  in  this  matter  of  her  external 
appearance  she  was  unfortunately  sensitive  in  an 
exaggerated  degree.  In  character,  too,  the  happy 
touch  which  blended  her  brother's  qualities  into 
such  a  perfect  harmony  was  lacking.  While 
with  him  the  father's  qualities  of  head  united 
with  the  mother's  gifts  of  heart,  in  her  a  sterling 
character,  possessed  of  many  solid  merits  and  much 
moral  and  intellectual  worth,  seemed  to  be  com- 
bined with  some  cross-grained  element,  inherited, 
perhaps,  from  her  father,  which  caused  its  pos- 
sessor much  unhappiness,  and  prevented  her  strong 
and  in  many  respects  fine  nature  from  attaining 
to  moral  beauty  and  grace. 

She  and  Wolfgang  received  in  early  years  much 
of  their  education  in  common,  and  this,  coupled 
with  the  father's  severity  and  the  very  dislike  of 
him  which  his  stiff  and  somewhat  tyrannous 
pedantry  aroused  in  her  rebellious  nature,  only 
threw  her  more  completely  into  the  arms  of  her 
brother,  whom  she  wellnigh  idolized. 

Intellectually  she  was  far  his  inferior ;  but  she 
had  quick  perceptions,  and  even  where  she  did 
not  understand  him  she  appears  to  have  felt  his 
greatness,  and  to  have  had  for  his  early  literary 
ambitions  and  endeavours  a  sympathy  and  appre- 
ciation which  was  by  no  means  blind  and  un- 
reasoning, for  it  was  to  her  that  Goethe  confided 
all  his  earliest  work,  and  on  her  criticism  that  he 


BOYHOOD  21 

depended  during  the  years  when  his  genius  was 
first  beginning  to  feel  its  wings. 

Cornelia  married  in  1773  Goethe's  friend,  John 
George  Schlosser,  and  died,  after  four  years  of  a 
not  very  happy  or  successful  married  life,  in  1777. 

Except  for  the  already  mentioned  brief  interval 
during  the  rebuilding  of  the  old  house,  Goethe 
did  not  visit  any  school,  but  was  educated  by  his 
father  at  home,  with  the  help  of  masters  for 
special  subjects.  This  plan  of  his  father's  Goethe, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  ascribed  to  a  twofold 
cause  —  namely,  the  wish  his  father  had,  in 
common  with  others,  to  give  his  son  those 
advantages  he  had  himself  missed,  and  a  con- 
fidence in  his  own  will  and  power  to  do  this  in 
the  matter  of  education  ;  and,  secondly,  a  distrust 
of  the  teachers  of  the  day.  Private  lessons,  all 
the  same,  which  he  shared  with  neighbours' 
children,  grew  more  and  more  numerous.  What 
the  education  was  which  he  obtained  in  this 
informal  manner,  how  wide,  and  even  motley,  in 
character,  and  with  what  a  store  of  images  rather 
than  words  or  ideas  it  stored  his  capacious  imagi- 
nation, we  know  from  the  pages  of  his  auto- 
biography. For  his  progress  in  languages,  we 
have  the  testimony  of  written  exercises  to  show 
that  at  the  age  of  eight  he  had  already  made  con- 
siderable progress  in  Latin,  Greek,  French,  and 
Italian. 


22  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

But  while  the  father  was  systematically  carrying 
on  his  education  according  to  his  own  carefully 
reasoned  theories,  his  mother  was  doing  for  him 
still  more  through  the  spontaneous  play  of  her  own 
free  and  untrammelled  imagination. 

It  is  a  pretty  picture  we  have  of  mother  and 
son,  the  fancy  of  the  child  catching  fire  at  the 
spark  of  genius  in  the  young  mother's  mind.  But 
let  her  tell  the  story  herself : 

"  I  was  as  eager  as  the  children  themselves  for  the 
hours  of  story-telling.  I  was  quite  curious  about 
the  future  course  of  my  own  improvisations,  and  any 
invitation  which  interrupted  these  evenings  was 
unwelcome.  There  I  sat,  and  there  Wolfgang  held 
me  with  his  big  black  eyes.  And  when  the  fate 
of  one  of  his  favourites  was  not  according  to  his 
fancy,  I  could  see  the  angry  vein  swell  on  his 
temples,  and  watch  him  repress  his  tears.  He 
would  often  burst  out  with  :  '  But,  mother,  the 
princess  won't  marry  the  nasty  tailor  even  if  he 
does  kill  the  giant.'  And  when  I  made  a  pause 
for  the  night,  promising  to  continue  the  story  on 
the  morrow,  I  was  certain  that  in  the  meantime  he 
would  think  it  out  for  himself,  and  so  he  often 
stimulated  my  imagination.  When  I  turned  the 
story  according  to  his  plan,  and  told  him  that  he 
had  discovered  the  ending,  he  was  all  fire  and 
flame,  and  you  could  see  his  little  heart  beating 
beneath  his  dress.  His  grandmother,  who  made 


BOYHOOD  23 

a  great  pet  of  him,  was  the  confidant  of  all  his 
ideas  as  to  how  the  story  would  turn  out,  and  as 
she  repeated  them  to  me,  and  I  turned  the  story 
accordingly,  there  was  a  little  diplomatic  secrecy 
between  us,  which  I  never  disclosed.  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  continuing  my  story,  to  the  delight  and 
astonishment  of  my  audience,  and  Wolfgang  saw 
with  glowing  eyes  the  fulfilment  of  his  own  ideas, 
and  listened  with  enthusiastic  applause." 

These  early  years  in  the  peaceful  old  town 
were,  however,  not  to  remain  undisturbed  by  the 
influence  of  the  great  events  of  the  outside  world. 
Frankfort  had  enjoyed  during  Goethe's  childhood 
a  succession  of  peaceful  and  prosperous  years,  but 
scarcely  had  he  passed  his  seventh  birthday  when, 
in  1756,  the  Seven  Years'  War  broke  out;  and 
though  it  did  not  at  first  affect  Frankfort  directly, 
from  the  beginning  it  made  its  influence  felt  on 
the  boy's  surroundings.  His  grandfather,  who 
had  carried  the  canopy  at  the  coronation  of 
Francis  I.,  and  had  received  from  the  Empress  a 
heavy  golden  chain  with  her  portrait,  was,  with 
the  majority  of  the  family,  on  the  Austrian  side, 
while  his  father,  with  the  minority,  was  for 
Prussia.  The  result  of  these  divided  sympathies 
was  much  unpleasantness  between  the  different 
factions,  which,  as  is  usual  in  the  quarrels  of 
relatives,  appears  to  have  reached  some  bitterness, 
and  Goethe  draws  us  a  very  lively  picture  of  these 


24  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

modern  Montagues  and  Capulets,  who  could  not 
meet  in  the  street  without  the  rancour  of  their 
party  spirit  getting  the  better  of  them.  As  for 
Goethe's  father,  we  are  not  surprised  to  hear  that 
after  a  few  unpleasant  scenes  he  had  recourse  to 
his  usual  expedient,  and  drew  back  into  the 
privacy  of  his  own  house,  there  to  interest  himself 
in  the  doings  of  his  own  party  in  peace. 

Wolfgang,  too,  whose  imagination  rather  than 
his  reason  was  appealed  to,  was  all  for  Prussia,  "  or 
rather  for  Fritz  !  for  what  had  Prussia  to  do  with 
us  !  It  was  the  personality  of  the  great  King  that 
affected  the  minds  of  all.  I  rejoiced  with  my 
father  over  our  victories,  joyfully  copied  out  all 
the  songs  of  victory,  and  with  almost  greater 
pleasure  the  lampoons  on  the  opposite  party,  how- 
ever bad  the  rimes  might  be."  But  however 
much  this  page  of  living  history  appealed  to  his 
fervid  imagination,  the  war  was  to  touch  them 
closer  yet. 

As  New  Year's  Day,  1759,  approached,  the 
children  looked  forward  to  its  joys  with  the  usual 
keen  anticipation ;  but  their  elders  were  almost 
too  occupied  with  graver  thoughts  to  do  it  justice. 
Frankfort  was  already  used  to  the  frequent  defil- 
ing of  French  troops,  but  they  had  never  been  so 
frequent  as  in  the  last  days  of  the  old  year. 
"  After  the  traditional  custom  of  the  imperial 
city,  the  warder  on  the  chief  tower  blew  his  horn 


BOYHOOD  25 

whenever  troops  approached,  and  on  this  New 
Year's  Day  his  horn  was  never  silent,  which  was 
a  sign  that  considerable  bodies  of  troops  were  in 
motion  on  several  sides.  On  this  day  they  were, 
in  fact,  marching  in  larger  numbers  through  the 
town :  people  ran  to  see  them  pass.  Up  till  now 
one  had  only  been  used  to  seeing  them  march 
through  in  smaller  bodies,  but  these  kept  getting 
bigger  and  bigger,  with  no  possibility  of  prevent- 
ing it  if  desired.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  on  the 
2nd  of  January  a  column,  after  marching  through 
Sachsenhausen  over  the  bridge  and  along  the 
Fahrgasse  as  far  as  the  Konstablerwache,  halted 
there,  overpowered  the  small  commando  that 
formed  its  escort,  took  possession  of  the  watch, 
marched  down  the  Zeil,  and  after  a  slight  resist- 
ance the  Hauptwache,  too,  had  to  yield.  Instantly 
the  peaceful  streets  were  transformed  into  a 
camp.  There  the  troops  stayed  and  bivouacked 
till  arrangements  were  made  for  their  regular 
quartering."* 

This  French  occupation  was  destined  to  be  of 
importance  for  Goethe's  youthful  education  in 
several  ways. 

As  his  share  of  the  burden,  the  Kaiserlicher  Rat 
had  quartered  upon  him  the  King's  Lieutenant, 
Comte  Thoranc,  who  had  the  settling  of  all  civil 

*  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Boole  III.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvi.,  p.  130  et  seq. 


26  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

cases  arising  between  soldiers  and  civilians. 
Although  the  Frenchman  behaved  admirably, 
spared  the  newly  decorated  house  in  every 
possible  way,  and  had  much  in  common  with  his 
unwilling  host,  yet  it  was  for  the  Councillor 
nothing  but  a  bitter  misfortune,  and  one  that 
neither  the  consideration  of  his  enforced  guest 
nor  the  good  offices  of  his  family  and  friends  could 
render  even  tolerable  to  him.  Not  only  did  he 
resent  having  to  give  up  to  a  stranger  his  best 
apartments,  and  suffer  under  the  disturbance 
caused  by  the  continual  coming  and  going  of 
clients  and  prisoners,  but  he  had  the  additional 
vexation  of  feeling  that  it  was  from  the  enemy  of 
his  King  that  all  this  had  to  be  endured. 

Yet  what  to  him  was  nothing  but  a  grief  and 
an  annoyance  was  for  his  son  a  gain  in  more  ways 
than  one.  The  Count  was  a  great  lover  of  pictures, 
and  on  the  very  first  night  of  his  arrival  had,  on 
hearing  of  the  picture-room,  called  for  a  light 
and  insisted  on  seeing  it  forthwith,  though  this 
opportunity,  favourable  as  it  seemed,  did  not 
succeed  in  bringing  about  an  approximation 
between  host  and  guest.  On  hearing  that  most 
of  the  artists  represented  were  still  alive  and 
inhabitants  of  Frankfort  and  the  neighbourhood, 
he  expressed  his  desire  of  making  their  acquaint- 
ance and  taking  advantage  of  their  talent.  This 
plan  he  carried  out,  and  it  was  from  the  inter- 


BOYHOOD  27 

course  in  his  father's  house  with  the  artists  who 
were  thus  working  on  commission  for  the  Count 
that  the  boy  gained  an  insight  into  the  methods 
and  the  technique  of  that  art  which  throughout 
his  life  ran  parallel  in  his  interest  to  that  of  letters, 
and  at  certain  times  even  seemed  likely  to  prove 
more  attractive  to  him.  He  mixed,  then,  with 
these  men,  criticised  their  work,  and  even  ventured 
to  make  suggestions,  some  of  which  were  con- 
sidered worthy  of  adoption. 

Another  advantage  which  he  derived  from  the 
French  occupation  was  of  more  direct  bearing  on 
his  own  particular  art.  The  French  garrison  was 
followed  by  a  French  theatre,  and  the  curious 
boy,  obtaining  from  his  grandfather  a  free  pass, 
became  a  regular  frequenter.  He  had  already 
before  acquired  in  an  irregular  fashion  a  certain 
knowledge  of  French,  and  this  he  now  added  to 
by  the  scraps  gleaned  from  servants  and  soldiers, 
sentries  and  visitors,  and  with  this  scanty  outfit 
proceeded  to  see  what  he  could  make  of  a  French 
play.  It  is  an  interesting  picture  he  gives  us  of 
this  experience  of  his  youth  : 

"  Here  I  sat  now  in  the  pit  before  a  foi-eign 
stage,  and  was  all  the  more  observant  of  action, 
gesture,  and  tone  of  voice,  that  I  understood  little 
or  nothing  of  what  was  said,  and  accordingly  had 
to  rely  for  my  diversion  on  accent  and  gesture. 
Of  comedy  I  understood  least,  because  it  was 


28  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

spoken  quickly,  and  dealt  with  matters  of  every- 
day life,  the  expressions  of  which  were  entirely 
strange  to  me.  Tragedy  was  less  frequently 
given,  and  the  measured  pace,  the  regular  beat  of 
the  alexandrines,  the  universality  of  expression, 
made  them  in  every  sense  more  intelligible.  It 
was  not  long  before  I  took  up  the  Racine  which  I 
found  in  my  father's  library,  and  declaimed  the 
pieces  in  theatrical  fashion,  as  my  ear  and  the  so 
closely  related  vocal  organs  had  received  them, 
with  great  animation,  though  I  could  not  yet  have 
understood  a  single  entire  connected  speech. 
Indeed,  I  learnt  whole  passages  by  heart,  and 
recited  them  like  a  parrot ;  which  was  all  the 
easier  for  me  from  having  earlier  learnt  by  heart 
passages  of  the  Bible,  which  are  generally  un- 
intelligible to  a  child,  and  accustomed  myself  to 
declaim  them  in  the  tone  of  the  Protestant 
preachers."* 

What  a  characteristic  picture  of  the  boy,  watch- 
ing the  play  in  a  language  he  less  than  half 
understands,  while  his  imagination  is  only  the 
more  stimulated  by  action  and  gesture,  to  which 
he  can  give  his  own  interpretation  ! 

As  his  free  pass  gave  him  entrance  to  all  parts  of 
the  house,  he  learned  to  know  the  theatre  in  all 
its  parts  and  workings,  and  early  became  farniliar- 

*  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  III.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvi.,  p.  142. 


BOYHOOD  29 

ized  with  matters  theatrical  both  before  and 
behind  the  scenes.  To  the  access  he  thus  enjoyed 
to  the  green-room  he  owed  the  distinguished 
patronage  of  a  little  braggart  of  the  name  of 
Derones,  who  was  of  the  same  age  as  himself,  but 
possessed  an  attractive  sister  a  couple  of  years 
older.  This  little  maiden  of  fourteen  seems  to 
have  aroused  a  certain  tender  feeling  in  his 
breast.  "  I  loved  in  every  way  to  make  myself 
agreeable  to  her,  but  I  could  not  gain  her  atten- 
tion/' we  are  told ;  which  the  old  man,  looking 
back  on  this  child-friend,  apparently  attractive 
still  in  memory,  explains  by  the  reflection  that 
"young  girls  think  themselves  far  in  advance  of 
boys  who  are  their  inferior  in  age,  and,  while  fixing 
their  eyes  on  youths,  assume  an  aunt-like  attitude 
towards  the  boy  who  makes  them  the  object  of 
his  first  devotion  !"* 

All  the  same,  if  to  the  mature  eyes  of  the  girl 
of  fourteen  he  seemed  only  a  child,  he  was  old 
enough  to  fight  a  duel  with  the  other  little  man 
of  twelve,  which,  fortunately,  ended  without  loss 
of  life  or  blood,  in  the  renewal,  after  satisfaction 
given,  of  the  old  friendship  over  a  glass  of  almond 
milk  in  the  nearest  coffee-house. 

Meantime  his  regular  education  was  progress- 
ing, even  there  imagination  being  used  to  enliven 

*  Dicktung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  III.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvi.,  p.  145. 


30  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

the  task.  Thus,  finding  his  language  studies  by 
the  old  time-honoured  routine  of  grammar  and 
compendium  grow  tedious,  he  conceived  the  idea 
of  writing  a  novel  in  letters,  in  which  a  number  of 
brothers  and  their  sister,  who  are  living  scattered 
in  the  world,  conduct  a  correspondence,  each  in 
a  different  tongue,  while  the  subject-matter  is 
provided  by  the  geographical  conditions  of  the 
various  places  and  countries  where  they  were 
supposed  to  be  located.  To  the  youngest  brother 
was  allotted  the  German  Hebrew  dialect,  and 
this  led  to  the  study  of  Hebrew  itself,  for,  finding 
that  the  modern  corruption  was  not  to  be  properly 
understood  without  a  knowledge  of  its  original 
form,  he  threw  himself  into  the  task  with  the 
additional  object  of  reading  the  Old  Testament  in 
the  original,  as  he  already  could  the  New.  He 
represented  to  his  father  the  necessity  of  learning 
that  language,  and  his  father,  not  unwillingly,  we 
may  imagine,  arranged  for  him  to  have  private 
lessons,  his  teacher  being  the  eccentric  Rektor  of 
the  Gymnasium,  the  Doktor  Albrecht,  the  JEsop 
in  cope  and  wig,  of  whom  the  autobiography  gives 
such  an  amusing  account. 

This  religious  tendency,  and  a  deep  feeling  for 
the  beauties  of  Biblical  language  and  thought, 
were  among  the  most  marked  characteristics  of 
the  many-sided  boy.  Biblical  subjects  formed  a 
favourite  theme  of  the  poets  of  the  day  ;  Klopstock 


BOYHOOD  31 

especially,  whose  Messias  was  such  a  favourite  of 
Wolfgang  and  his  sister,  had  given  to  the 
characters  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  a  new 
life  and  reality.  Partly  inspired  by  such  works, 
and  partly  by  his  Hebrew  and  Biblical  studies, 
Goethe,  too,  conceived  the  idea  of  such  a  Scriptural 
work. 

"  To  treat  the  history  of  Joseph  had  long  been 
a  wish  of  mine,"  he  says,  and  now  he  really  set  to 
work,  dictating  the  theme  to  a  poor  half-witted 
youth  who  lived  as  ward  in  his  father's  house,  and 
whose  favourite  occupation  was  the  writing  or 
copying  of  anything  entrusted  to  him.  To  his 
surprise,  the  work  actually  reached  completion, 
and  this  led  to  the  idea  of  bringing  together  in 
the  same  manner  earlier  poems,  which  formed  a 
quarto  volume,  to  which  the  name  of  Miscellaneous 
Poems  was  given,  a  dignified  title  which  seemed 
to  the  boy-author  to  place  him  in  the  worshipful 
company  of  many  famous  authors  who  had  made 
use  of  it  before  him.  Of  the  other  poems  of  this 
time,  the  most  important,  and  one  which  is  still 
preserved,  is  also  of  a  religious  character.  It  is 
entitled  Die  Hollenfahrt  Christi,  and  won  for  him 
much  encouragement  from  parents  and  friends. 

We  are  now  drawing  towards  the  end  of  the 
first  period,  the  uninterrupted  years  of  boyhood  in 
his  father's  home.  The  close  of  this  time  is 
marked  by  two  events — his  love  for  the  Frankfort 


32  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

Gretchen  and  the  ceremonies  connected  with  the 
coronation  of  the  Emperor. 

We  have  already  seen  how  he  felt  at  the  age  of 
twelve  an  attraction  for  the  sister  of  the  little 
Derones — who  so  wounded  him  with  her  aunt-like 
airs — which  was,  as  it  were,  a  premonition  of  the 
susceptibility  to  the  attractions  of  the  opposite  sex 
which  was  to  form  one  of  the  potent  factors  of  his 
life  from  boyhood  to  old  age.  The  mystery  of 
the  "  eternal  feminine "  was  a  possession  that 
haunted  him,  bringing  sorrow  as  well  as  joy  in  its 
train.  For  good  or  ill  the  society  of  women  was 
necessary  to  him,  acting  as  an  inspiration  and  a 
spur,  and  to  the  various  women  who  had  influence 
upon  his  life  we  owe  directly  and  indirectly  a 
considerable  part  of  his  works.  The  list  is  a  long 
one,  and  would  include  many  beside  those  whom 
he  temporarily  enshrined  in  his  heart ;  the  love 
for  mother  and  sister,  and  some  true  friendships, 
as  well  as  the  many  actual  love-affairs  of  his  life. 

The  childish  admiration  for  the  placid,  melan- 
choly little  French  girl,  with  her  dark,  clear-cut 
face  and  black  hair  and  eyes,  does  not  seem  to 
have  had  any  very  lasting  effect,  but  shortly  before 
completing  his  fifteenth  year  we  find  him  inspired 
with  a  youthful  passion  of  a  more  real  kind.  This 
was  for  Gretchen,  the  sister  of  one  of  a  set  of  com- 
panions belonging  rather  to  the  lower  than  the 
middle  classes,  in  whose  society  he  appears  at  this 


BOYHOOD  33 

period  to  have  spent  much  of  his  time,  and  who 
first  led  him  to  turn  his  poetical  talents  to  practical 
account  by  the  writing  of  wedding  and  funeral 
verses,  the  proceeds  of  which  defrayed  the  cost  of 
their  modest  convivialities. 

The  incident  is  related  at  great  length,  and 
though  it  may  have  attained  in  retrospect  an 
intensity  it  never  possessed  in  fact,  yet  there  seems 
little  doubt  that  the  quiet  girl,  who  treated  him 
with  affection  and  real  friendship,  though  by  no 
means  reciprocating  his  ardent  youthful  passion, 
did  inspire  him  with  more  than  a  mere  passing 
fancy.  He  dwells  very  lovingly  on  the  first  meet- 
ing. "The  form  of  this  girl  followed  me  from 
that  moment  wherever  I  went.  It  was  the  first 
lasting  impression  which  one  of  her  sex  had  made 
upon  me,"  he  tells  us. 

At  any  rate,  even  if  she  treated  him  like  an 
elder  sister,  as  the  other  little  maiden  had  treated 
him  like  an  aunt,  she  was  very  good  to  him,  and 
gave  him  some  excellent  advice ;  and,  above  all, 
warned  him  to  have  nothing  further  to  do  with 
the  pranks  of  the  wild  set  with  which  he  was 
associated.  These  companions  appear  to  have 
gone  on  from  more  or  less  harmless  practical  jokes 
to  more  questionable  proceedings,  and  when 
presently  the  storm  burst,  Goethe's  name  was 
inevitably  implicated. 

Meanwhile   the  coronation  of  Joseph   II.   was 


34  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

approaching,  and  the  festive  preparations  and  the 
arrival  of  all  the  distinguished  guests  with  their 
trains  and  followers  filled  the  city  with  a  gay  and 
motley  crowd.  The  coronation  day,  April  3,  1764, 
with  all  its  pomp  and  solemnity,  the  coronation  in 
the  cathedral,  and  the  banquet  in  the  ancient 
Romer,  as  the  Frankfort  town-hall  was  called,  was 
a  wonderful  day  for  the  impressionable  boy,  who 
now  saw  history  being  made  beneath  his  eyes,  and 
could  himself  better  appreciate  the  accounts  of 
those  wonderful  coronations  of  the  past,  such  as 
those  of  Francis  I.  and  Maria  Theresa,  the  glories 
of  which  older  people  were  fond  of  extolling. 

The  happiest  part  of  the  day  was,  however,  for 
him  the  evening,  when  he  roamed  with  his  com- 
panions through  the  gaily -lighted  streets  at 
Gretchen's  side,  as  though  he  was  i-eally  walking 
in  the  happy  fields  of  Elysium.  Together  they 
spent  the  greater  part  of  the  night  in  the  happiest 
good-fellowship,  and  when  at  length  he  escorted 
Gretchen  to  her  door,  she  kissed  him  on  the  brow 
— the  first  and  last  time,  for  he  was  not  to  see 
her  again. 

If  on  that  night  the  highest  pinnacle  of  bliss 
seemed  to  be  reached,  the  catastrophe  came  with 
appalling  and  dramatic  suddenness.  The  next 
morning  he  was  still  in  bed,  when  his  mother 
entered  the  room  in  a  state  of  great  trouble  and 
perturbation,  and,  bidding  him  rise  and  prepare 


BOYHOOD  35 

for  something  unpleasant,  informed  him  that  every- 
thing had  been  discovered,  both  the  company  he 
had  kept,  and  the  dangerous  practices  in  which 
he  had  become  involved.  Though  strong  in  the 
consciousness  of  his  innocence  of  any  real  wrong- 
doing, yet  the  boy  had  a  very  unpleasant  experi- 
ence, as  his  protestations  were  not  believed,  and 
his  silence  was  mistaken  for  obstinacy.  But  hard 
as  the  anger  of  his  father,  the  suspicions  of  his 
friends,  and  the  anxiety  for  his  companions  were 
to  bear,  his  pride  and  self-esteem  were  to  be  more 
deeply  wounded. 

After  the  whole  affair  had  blown  over,  he  still 
brooded  over  his  woes,  picturing  all  sorts  of  evils 
that  might  have  befallen  his  friends  and  Gretchen, 
and  refused  to  be  comforted,  till  at  last  what  no 
good  offices  of  friends  and  family  could  do  was 
accomplished  by  a  violent  means.  Having  at  last 
plucked  up  courage  to  confess  his  love  for  Gretchen, 
and  to  ask  after  her  fate,  he  learnt  the  whole  un- 
palatable truth — how  her  examination  had  brought 
out  nothing  but  what  was  to  her  credit,  and  had 
won  her  the  esteem  of  all,  and  how  her  departure 
from  the  town  was  at  her  own  express  wish. 
Hearing  of  her  statement  in  regard  to  himself, 
the  boy  wished  to  know  what  this  had  been.  "  If 
you  wish  to  know,"  answered  his  friend  at  last, 
"  when  asked  of  you  and  her  intercourse  with  you, 
she  said  quite  openly,  '  I  cannot  deny  that  I  saw 
3—2 


36  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

him  often  and  liked  to  see  him ;  but  I  always 
looked  upon  him  as  a  child,  and  my  affection  for 
him  was  indeed  that  of  a  sister.'  " 

Poor  little  hero  !  This  was  indeed  bitter  !  He 
could  have  endured  all  for  her  sake,  and  had 
already  endured  for  her  endless  woes  of  his  own 
making,  and  to  be  treated  in  this  fashion  after  all ! 
Still,  the  caustic  was  good  for  his  sore,  and  he  set 
himself  to  forget  her,  and  though  it  was  not  an 
easy  matter  at  first,  yet  we  find  his  heart  suffi- 
ciently healed  to  be  capable  of  another  tender 
passion  in  the  comparatively  short  time  which 
still  remained  to  him  at  Frankfort. 

It  is  possible  that  the  reminiscent  Goethe  of 
half  a  century  later  made  more  of  this  pretty 
episode  than  the  reality  fully  justified,  but  even 
if  so,  we  can  only  be  grateful  to  him  for  the 
charming  story  of  romantic  youthful  love,  and  the 
picture  of  his  boyish  years  which  it  incidentally 
preserves. 

So  the  end  of  his  actual  boyhood  approached, 
and  the  time  drew  near  for  him  to  leave  his 
father's  home  for  the  larger  world  of  the  Univer- 
sity. Uninterruptedly  his  education  continued, 
many-sided  if  desultory,  some  work  being  done 
to  please  his  father,  some  to  satisfy  the  somewhat 
pedantic  tutor  who  had  been  provided  for  him 
after  the  Gretchen  affair,  but  most  of  all  to  please 
himself.  Languages,  history,  philosophy,  nothing 


BOYHOOD  37 

came  amiss  to  him,  and  gradually  we  see  forming 
that  wide  and  copious  knowledge,  the  combina- 
tion of  which  with  great  creative  power  was  the 
special  characteristic  of  his  genius.  Of  wide 
learning  for  his  age  and  yet  not  a  bookworm,  pre- 
cocious in  mind  yet  with  all  the  natural  gaiety 
and  spontaneity  of  youth,  universally  beloved  and 
himself  something  of  a  universal  lover,  such  was 
the  youth  of  sixteen  who  in  the  early  autumn  of 
1 765  set  out  for  the  unknown  world  of  University 
life  in  the  gay  "little  Paris  on  the  Plesse." 


CHAPTER  III 

LEIPSIC 

IN  the  company  of  a  bookseller,  Fleischer,  and 
his  wife,  who  were  travelling  to  Leipsic  to 
attend  the  great  annual  fair,  Goethe  set  out  at 
Michaelmas,  1765,  leaving  behind  him,  as  he  tells 
us,  the  city  which  had  borne  and  reared  him,  with 
complete  indifference.  Frankfort  had  become  dis- 
tasteful to  him ;  the  boyish  pleasures  had  been 
broken  off  abruptly  by  the  Gretchen  incident,  and, 
once  interrupted,  the  old  delight  in  merely  aimless 
wanderings  through  the  streets  of  the  old  town 
could  not  reassert  itself,  while  his  first  great  dis- 
illusionment had  made  him  take  too  gloomy  a 
view  of  the  life  and  institutions  of  that  native  city 
which  he  had  before  admired  and  loved  unques- 
tioningly.  He  had  outgrown  both  his  childish 
pleasures  and  his  childhood's  companions,  and  was 
longing  to  try  his  wings.  It  was  in  this  hopeful 
anticipation  of  a  full  life  with  larger  possibilities 
that  he  reached  Leipsic  in  the  month  of  October. 
On  the  19th  of  that  month  he  was  admitted  by 
38 


AUERHACH'S    KELLER    IN    LEITSIC 


LEIPSIC  39 

the  Rector  of  the  University  as  a  student  "  of  the 
Bavarian  nation/'  one  of  the  four  "  nations  "  into 
which  the  whole  University  was  divided,  and  into 
which  Goethe  as  a  Frankforter  naturally  passed. 

His  lodgings  consisted  of  two  rooms  in  the 
Feuerkugel,  a  house  looking  on  to  the  courtyard 
which  connected  the  old  market  and  the  new, 
where  Lessing  had  lived  ten  years  before. 

He  had  come  to  Leipsic  with  the  object  of 
studying  law,  and  he  was  accordingly  inscribed  as 
Studiottu  der  Rechtc,  and,  placing  himself  under 
the  guidance  of  Hofrat  Bohme,  a  jurist  and  pro- 
fessor who  lectured  on  history  and  public  law, 
threw  himself  for  a  short  time  into  the  study  of 
that  uncongenial  subject,  and  gave  some  brief 
hope  of  fulfilling  the  expectations  in  which  his 
father  had  sent  him,  and  of  his  present  tutor,  for 
whom  there  was  no  success  outside  the  narrow 
limits  of  his  own  speciality.  However,  this  tem- 
porary enthusiasm  soon  began  to  wane,  and  the 
attraction  of  the  study  of  belles-lettres,  or  philology, 
as  it  then  began  to  be  called,  which  had  made 
him  think  at  first  of  Gottingen,  the  home  of  men 
like  Heyiie  and  Michaelis,  reasserted  itself.  Logic 
seemed  to  him  as  lifeless  as  law,  and  his  eyes 
turned  from  the  dry  operations  of  the  class-room 
to  the  actualities  of  life  which  presented  them- 
selves to  him  here  in  Leipsic  in  so  new  and 
attractive  a  form. 


40  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

Leipsic  was  then  the  centre  of  refinement 
among  the  German  Universities,  the  one  that 
prided  itself  on  its  cosmopolitan  culture,  and 
under  its  influence  Goethe  speedily  came.  He 
was  not  long  in  perceiving  that  his  standard  of 
dress  and  speech  lent  him  an  invidious  distinction 
in  the  society  in  which  he  moved,  and  for  the  boy 
who  from  childhood  had  been  endowed  with  a 
strong  sense  of  personal  dignity  this  state  of 
things  was  not  to  be  endured.  He  had  brought 
with  him  a  complete  outfit  of  new  clothes  of  most 
excellent  material,  'but  of  which  as  regards  cut  it 
is  sufficient  to  say  that  they  had  been  made  at 
home  by  one  of  his  father's  servants,  this  allot- 
ment of  double  functions  to  the  members  of  the 
household  being  one  of  the  careful  Councillor's 
favourite  economies.  As  his  son  tells  us,  "nothing 
gave  him  more  pleasure  than  killing  two  birds 
with  one  stone."  When,  in  addition  to  the  testi- 
mony of  his  friends,  he  saw  in  the  theatre  just 
such  a  provincial  style  of  dress  as  his  own  raise 
the  hearty  laughter  of  the  audience,  he  took 
heart,  and  at  one  sweep  changed  his  whole  ward- 
robe for  one  more  capable  of  satisfying  the  exact- 
ing Leipsic  taste,  and  for  a  time,  at  any  rate,  he 
appears  to  have  gone  almost  to  the  other  extreme, 
and  become  just  a  bit  of  a  dandy. 

But  Leipsic  was  not  satisfied  even  now,  and 
exacted  yet  another  transformation  before  she 


LEIPSIC  41 

could  regard  the  Franconian  youth  as  meeting 
her  standard  of  culture  and  refinement.  This  was 
the  laying  aside  of  his  Frankfort,  "Upper  German" 
dialect,  and  the  acceptance  of  the  gospel  of  pure 
German  according  to  the  Leipsic  faith.  This  was 
a  more  difficult  task  than  a  mere  change  of  dress, 
and  one  by  no  means  pleasant,  for  he  was  fond 
of  his  old  Franconian  speech,  with  its  rugged 
picturesqueness  and  wealth  of  imagery  and  quota- 
tion. 

The  whole  passage  of  the  autobiography  bear- 
ing on  the  subject  is  interesting  both  in  itself 
and  as  throwing  a  light  upon  the  feeling  of  the 
time  with  regard  to  dialectic  speech  : 

"  Every  province  loves  its  dialect,  for  it  is  really 
the  element  in  which  the  soul  breathes.  But  with 
what  aggressiveness  the  Meissen  dialect  managed 
for  a  time  to  rule,  and,  indeed,  exclude  the  others, 
is  well  known.  We  have  suffered  for  many  years 
under  this  pedantic  sway,  and  only  by  much  oppo- 
sition have  the  various  provinces  reinstated  them- 
selves in  their  ancient  rights.  What  a  young  and 
spirited  man  endured  under  this  constant  tutoring 
anyone  can  easily  imagine  who  considers  that, 
together  with  the  pronunciation,  to  the  change  of 
which  one  at  last  got  accustomed,  mode  of  thought, 
imagination,  feeling,  and  native  character  had  no 
less  to  be  sacrificed.  And  this  intolerable  demand 
was  made  by  cultured  men  and  women,  whose 


42  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

conviction  I  could  not  share,  but  whose  injustice 
I  believed  I  felt,  without  being  able  definitely  to 
express  it.  References  to  pregnant  passages  of 
the  Bible,  the  use  of  the  hearty  expressions  of  the 
old  chronicles,  were  to  be  forbidden  me.  I  was 
to  forget  that  I  had  read  Geiler  von  Kaisersberg, 
and  renounce  the  use  of  proverbs,  though  they,  in 
place  of  a  lot  of  idle  bandying  of  words,  hit  the 
nail  on  the  head  at  once.  All  this,  which  I  had 
acquired  with  the  eagerness  of  youth,  I  was  to 
forego.  I  felt  my  very  soul  paralyzed,  and  I 
scarcely  knew  how  to  express  myself  on  the  very 
commonest  topics."* 

How  graphic  the  picture  Goethe  here  gives 
us  of  himself,  put  into  a  Leipsic  strait- waistcoat, 
feeling  himself  tongue-tied  from  the  fear  of 
making  mistakes  that  all  the  time  seem  to  him 
no  mistakes,  but  only  a  gain  to  the  beauty  and 
vigour  of  speech ! 

The  influence  which  was  powerful  enough  to 
reconcile  him  even  to  these  sacrifices  for  the  sake 
of  acquiring  the  true  Leipsic  tone  was  mainly 
exercised  by  women,  the  principal  among  them 
being  the  wife  of  his  tutor,  Hofrat  Bohme.  She 
took  a  real  interest  in  him,  and  was  very  kind  to 
him,  even  if  her  criticisms  were  sometimes  by  no 
means  pleasant  to  bear.  She  was  of  weak  health, 

*  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  VI.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvii.,  p.  58. 


LEIPSIC  43 

and  confined  much  to  the  house,  and  many  an 
evening  Goethe  spent  with  her,  learning  from  her 
those  many  little  trifles  that  went  to  make  up  the 
good  breeding  of  the  place  and  time,  and  which 
in  their  mere  conventionality  no  genius,  however 
great,  could  draw  from  the  fountain  of  pure  reason 
or  learn  by  intuition. 

It  is  very  entertaining,  this  picture  of  the 
young  genius  being  recreated  a  man  after  the 
idea  of  manhood  of  a  Leipsic  salon,  that  he  might 
feel  himself  the  equal  of  all  the  little  people 
about  him. 

The  two  most  prominent  men  of  letters  living 
in  Leipsic  at  the  time  of  Goethe's  arrival  were 
Gottsched  (1700-1766)  and  Gellert  (1715-1769). 

Gottsched,  the  dictator  of  the  French  taste  in 
literature,  had  been  a  couple  of  decades  previously 
all-powerful ;  but  the  power  had  passed  from  his 
hands,  and  Goethe  found  him  now,  at  the  close  of 
his  life,  left  almost  stranded.  "  No  one  has  any- 
thing to  do  with  him  now,"  he  wrote.  Yet 
Goethe  once  paid  him  a  visit  in  his  apartments 
on  the  first-floor  of  the  Golden  Bear,  which  the 
bookseller  Breithoff  had  assured  him  in  return  for 
the  profits  derived  from  his  manifold  writings,  and 
so  the  men  whose  lives  embraced  the  years  from 
1700  to  1832  did  once  meet.  That  meeting  was 
not  quite  of  the  conventional  pattern,  for  we  have 
a  very  amusing  picture  of  how  the  visitors,  being 


44  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

shown  by  mistake  into  the  wrong  room,  found  the 
great  man  without  his  wig,  and  how,  when  the 
horror-stricken  servant  hastily  brought  him  the 
missing  covering,  he  showed  not  the  slightest 
embarrassment,  but,  taking  the  wig  with  his  left 
hand,  dealt  the  servant  a  buffet  with  the  right 
that  sent  him  reeling  backwards  out  of  the  door. 
The  worthy  patriarch  of  letters  then  gravely 
begged  them  to  be  seated,  and  delivered  a  long 
and  dignified  harangue.  Unless  it  owes  some- 
thing to  the  younger  dramatist,  the  scene  strikes 
one  as  the  most  dramatic  of  his  works. 

The  man  who  had  succeeded  to  Gottsched's 
vacated  throne  was  Gellert,  who  exercised  a  very 
great  influence  on  the  youth  of  the  University, 
and,  in  Goethe's  opinion,  might  have  exercised  a 
still  greater  if  he  had  cared  to  do  so.  Goethe 
attended  his  lectures  on  literature,  in  which,  to 
his  surprise,  he  never  heard  the  names  of  such 
living  writers  as  Klopstock,  Wieland,  or  Lessing, 
and  also  his  private  class  (Praktikuiri),  in  which 
questions  of  composition  and  style  received  a  more 
detailed  treatment.  There  he  delivered  to  his 
young  disciples  jeremiads  in  which  he  warned 
them  against  poetiy ;  he  only  cared  for  prose 
essays,  and  always  corrected  them  first.  Verses 
he  only  treated  as  something  to  be  endured,  and 
Goethe's  prose  even  found  little  favour  in  his 
eyes.  The  young  poet  let  his  imagination  play  : 


LEIPSIC  45 

his  essays  took  the  form  of  novels  ;  the  subjects 
were  passionate,  and  often  went  beyond  the  limits 
of  mere  prose  ;  but  no  praise  could  he  extort  from 
the  cold  master,  who  went  through  his  exer- 
cises like  the  rest,  making  his  corrections  in  red 
ink,  and  here  and  there  adding  some  moral 
reflection. 

All  the  same,  Goethe  did  feel  his  influence  at 
the  time,  and  his  Leipsic  letters  are  exercises  in 
the  epistolary  style  of  Gellert,  to  whose  exhorta- 
tions also  it  was  due  that  he  devoted  at  that  time 
an  attention  to  his  writing,  which  resulted  in  a 
permanent  improvement  of  his  hitherto  careless 
hand.  Yet,  whatever  his  moral  excellences  and 
the  general  benevolence  of  his  character,  there 
was  nothing  great  about  Gellert  either  as  poet  or  as 
man,  and  though  he  might  teach  Goethe  something 
about  versification,  it  was  not  in  him  to  give  a  real 
impulse  and  direction  to  the  genius  of  the  youth 
whom  he  apparently  so  little  understood. 

The  one  man  who  might  have  had  as  great  an 
influence  on  him  personally  as  he  did  indirectly 
through  his  works  was  Lessing,  and  Lessing 
Goethe  might  have  seen  in  Leipsic  but  for  a 
foolish  whim,  which  led  him  not  to  take  any  steps 
to  see  the  great  man,  but  to  leave  their  meeting 
to  chance.  Fortune  was  not  kind,  and  he  never 
saw  the  one  who  was  his  only  real  forerunner  in 
the  cause  of  true  literature. 


46  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

Thus  we  see  the  boy  student — who,  we  must 
remember,  was,  even  when  he  left  Leipsic,  no 
older  than  the  head  boys  of  our  public  schools — 
engrossed  in  many  interests  that  had  little  to  do 
with  jurisprudence.  But  of  all,  the  one  that 
received  perhaps  his  most  enthusiastic  attention 
during  these  first  University  years  was  art.  Now, 
as  later  in  Italy,  we  find  him  divided  between 
art  and  literature,  and  pursuing  the  former  with 
almost  greater  zeal  than  the  latter.  In  Leipsic 
he  took  lessons  in  drawing  from  Adam  Frederic 
Oeser,  the  Director  of  the  Drawing  Academy,  a 
man  who  had  the  greatest  influence  on  his  develop- 
ment, and  of  whom  he  always  speaks  in  terms  of 
the  most  enthusiastic  praise.  Oeser  was  a  friend 
of  Winckelmann,  and  imbued  with  his  thought, 
and  the  lesson  that  the  ideal  of  beauty  lies  in 
simplicity  and  repose  he  impressed  upon  Goethe 
in  a  way  that  made  of  it  one  of  his  fundamental 
ideas.  In  the  practical  technique  of  his  art  Oeser 
was  probably  not  a  very  good  teacher,  and  Goethe 
did  not  make  much  progress  under  his  tuition  ; 
but  the  influence  of  his  attractive  personality  and 
the  atmosphere  of  his  home  in  the  old  Pleissen- 
burg  made  a  never-to-be-forgotten  impression  on 
his  mind. 

Under  Oeser's  guidance  Goethe  by  no  means 
confined  himself  to  drawing.  To  his  etching, 
under  the  help  of  the  engraver  Stock,  it  is  not 


LEIPSIC  47 

impossible  that  the  serious  illness  which  darkened 
the  end  of  his  Leipsic  time  was  due. 

But  before  leaving  this  subject  of  his  art 
studies,  a  word  must  be  said  of  a  remarkable 
book,  and  the  somewhat  remarkable  journey  which 
it  led  Goethe  to  undertake.  The  book  was 
Lessing's  Laokoon,  "  that  ray  of  light  from  the 
dark  clouds/'  that  luminous  attempt  to  define  the 
limits  of  poetry  and  the  plastic  arts,  which  has 
stimulated  and  inspired  even  more  minds  than  it 
has  convinced.  On  Goethe  its  effect  was  electrical, 
and  new  worlds  of  artistic  possibilities  opened  up 
before  his  eyes. 

Under  this  powerful  impulse  it  was  only  natural 
for  him  to  want  to  do  something,  to  put  his  new 
theory  into  practice,  to  visualize  his  newly-acquired 
conceptions.  In  this  case  the  desire  was  to  explore 
further  for  himself  this  world  of  art,  and  with  this 
purpose  he  stole  away  in  the  autumn  of  1767  to 
Dresden.  He  took  the  step  without  the  know- 
ledge of  even  his  intimate  friends — firstly,  because 
he  wished  to  revel  alone  and  after  his  own  fashion 
in  these  treasures  of  art ;  and,  secondly,  on  account 
of  a  horror  of  inns,  which  he  inherited  from  his 
father,  and  which  was  a  strange  trait  in  the 
character  of  one  to  whom  intercourse  with  his 
fellows  was  so  easy  and  successful  a  thing. 

He  accordingly  lodged  with  a  relative  of  the 
hard-working,  half-blind  theologian  who  was  his 


48  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

fellow-lodger  at  Leipsic,  a  cobbler  and  Mark 
Tapley  in  real  life,  whom  Goethe  already  knew 
well  from  his  letters,  the  arrival  of  which  were 
always  hailed  with  joy.  Goethe  found  him  a 
cheerful  man,  whose  one  condition  of  happiness 
was  incessant  work,  and  full  of  practical  philosophy 
and  unconscious  wisdom.  Possibly  the  simple 
household  in  which  he  temporarily  found  himself 
and  the  sturdy  Teutonism  of  his  host  were  not 
without  influence  on  his  mood,  and  helped  to 
make  him  view  with  ready,  sympathetic  eyes  the 
famous  pictures  of  the  Dutch  School  which  he 
found  in  the  gallery.  However  that  may  be,  the 
Italian  masters  did  not  appeal  to  him  with  the 
same  directness,  and,  confining  himself,  as  always, 
to  his  own  direct  observation  and  intuition,  he 
did  not  attempt  to  force  an  interest  that  did 
not  arise  spontaneously.  This  appreciation  of  the 
directness  and  truth  of  the  Netherlander  founded 
during  his  Dresden  visit  never  left  him  even  in 
the  days  of  most  pronounced  classicism. 

Enriched  with  a  wealth  of  impressions,  he 
returned  to  Leipsic,  and  the  account  he  gave 
of  his  movements  to  his  astonished  friends  was 
received  with  amused  incredulity,  as  the  mask  of 
some  secret  which  they  vainly  endeavoured  to 
discover. 

Art  we  see,  then,  occupying  much  of  his  time 
and  thought.  "Thus,  the  University,"  he  says, 


LEIPSIC  ,  49 

"where  I  neglected  the  objects  of  my  family, 
and,  indeed,  my  own,  was  to  confirm  me  in  that 
in  which  I  was  destined  to  find  the  greatest  satis- 
faction of  my  life  ;  and  the  impression  of  those 
places  in  which  I  received  such  powerful,  stimu- 
lating influences  has  always  remained  very  dear 
and  precious  to  me.  The  old  Pleissenburg,  the 
rooms  of  the  Academy,  but  above  all  Oeser's 
dwelling,  and  no  less  the  Winkler  and  Richter 
collections,  are  still  vividly  present  before  me."* 

Meanwhile  Leipsic  had  been  the  scene  of  a 
genuine  passion.  During  the  fair  of  1766  a 
fellow-townsman,  Johann  Georg  Schlosser,  who 
in  1773  married  his  sister  Cornelia,  arrived  at 
Leipsic,  and  took  up  his  lodgings  with  the  wine- 
dealer  Schonkopf,  who  lived  at  No.  79  in  the 
Briihl,  in  a  house  which  still  exists,  though  it  has 
been  almost  entirely  rebuilt. 

Schlosser  was  ten  years  older  than  Goethe,  a 
man  of  settled  views  and  strong,  decided  character, 
who  had  at  the  same  time  a  wide  acquaintance 
with  what  was  best  in  most  of  the  principal 
modern  literatures.  To  him  Goethe,  who  was 
then  far  from  happy,  owing  to  the  disillusionment 
which  a  closer  acquaintance  with  the  great  men 
of  the  University  had  brought  in  its  train,  and  the 
chaos  to  which  his  own  mind  had  been  reduced 

*  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  VIII.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvii.,  p.  163. 
4 


50  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

by  the  uprooting  of  the  convictions  which  he  had 
brought  with  him  from  Frankfort,  without  the 
substitution  of  anything  better  in  their  place,  and 
who  may  possibly  have  been  a  little  home-sick, 
too,  attached  himself  with  whole-heart  confidence 
and  devotion. 

During  Schlosser's  stay  in  Leipsic  he  dined 
daily  at  Schonkopf s  table,  and  was  introduced  by 
him  to  the  circle  which  gathered  there,  and  con- 
tinued to  frequent  the  house  even  after  his 
departure.  There  was,  however,  by  now  another 
attraction  besides  the  learned  interests  of  the 
company,  for  his  heart  had  been  captivated  by  the 
charms  of  the  daughter  of  the  house,  Anna  Katha- 
rina,  known  as  Kathchen,  who  appears  in  Goethe's 
own  story  as  Annchen.  Most  of  Goethe's 
youthful  passions  were  for  girls  older  than  himself, 
and  Kathchen  had  the  advantage  of  him  by  three 
years.  We  will  give  his  own  account  of  the  story, 
though  we  might  remark  in  advance  that  it 
appears  probable  that  in  much  of  the  teasing 
which  the  autobiography,  and  also  the  Lau/ic  dcs 
Verlicbicn,  in  which  the  love-affair  is  incorporated, 
attribute  to  him,  he  was  rather  the  passive  than 
the  active  agent. 

"  My  earlier  tender  feeling  for  Gretchen  I  had 
now  transferred  to  an  Annchen,  of  whom  I  can 
say  no  more  than  that  she  was  young,  pretty, 
merry,  and  so  charming  that  she  well  deserved  to 


LEIPSIC  51 

be  enthroned  for  a  time  in  the  sanctuary  of  the 
heart  and  to  receive  that  adoration  which  it  is 
often  more  pleasant  to  give  than  to  receive.  I 
saw  her  daily  without  hindrance ;  she  helped  in 
the  preparation  of  the  dishes  I  ate  ;  in  the  evening, 
at  any  rate,  she  brought  the  wine  I  drank  ;  and  our 
select  mid-day  table  was  sufficient  guarantee  that 
the  little  house,  which  except  at  fair-time  received 
but  few  guests,  fully  deserved  its  good  name. 
Neither  desire  nor  occasion  were  lacking  for  many 
a  conversation.  But  as  she  had  very  little  oppor- 
tunity or  possibility  of  leaving  the  house,  amuse- 
ments grew  rather  scarce  all  the  same.  We  sang 
the  songs  of  Zacharia,  played  Duke  Michel  von 
Kriiger,  in  which  a  rolled-up  handkerchief  had  to 
take  the  place  of  the  nightingale,  and  so  for  a  time 
things  went  on  fairly  well.  But,  because  the  more 
innocent  such  relationships  are,  the  less  variety 
they  offer  in  the  long-run,  I  was  attacked  by  that 
evil  passion  which  leads  us  to  seek  entertain- 
ment in  the  torture  of  the  beloved  one,  and  to  try 
her  devotion  with  capricious  and  tyrannical  whims. 
The  ill-humour  at  the  failure  of  my  poetical  at- 
tempts, and  the  appai-ent  impossibility  of  arriving 
at  inner  clearness  with  regard  both  to  this  and 
to  other  matters  which  troubled  me,  I  thought 
I  could  vent  on  her,  because  she  really  loved  me 
deeply,  and  did  all  she  could  to  please  me.  By 
groundless  and  foolish  jealousies  I  spoilt  both  for 
4—2 


52  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

myself  and  her  the  happiest  days.  She  endured 
it  for  a  time  with  an  incredible  patience,  which  I 
was  cruel  enough  to  tax  to  the  utmost.  But,  to 
my  shame  and  despair,  I  could  not  at  last  but 
perceive  that  her  affections  were  estranged  from 
me,  and  that  I  might  now  have  been  justified  in 
the  follies  which  I  had  formerly  indulged  in  with- 
out need  or  cause.  There  were  terrible  scenes 
between  us,  in  which  I  gained  nothing  ;  and  now 
it  was  that  I  felt  that  I  really  loved  her,  and  that 
I  could  not  give  her  up.  My  passion  grew  and 
took  all  the  forms  of  which  it  is  capable  under 
such  circumstances ;  indeed,  I  finally  assumed 
what  had  previously  been  her  role.  Every  possible 
means  I  sought  to  please  her,  and  even  to  give 
her  pleasure  through  others,  for  I  could  not 
renounce  the  hope  of  winning  her  back.  But  it 
was  too  late  !  I  had  really  lost  her,  and  the  folly 
with  which  I  avenged  my  fault  upon  myself,  by 
inflicting  passionate  excesses  upon  my  physical 
nature  in  many  foolish  ways,  in  order  to  make  the 
moral  side  of  my  nature  suffer  too,  contributed 
very  largely  to  the  bodily  ills  through  which  I 
lost  some  of  the  best  years  of  my  life.  Indeed,  I 
should  perhaps  have  completely  succumbed  to  this 
loss,  had  not  the  poetic  talent  proved  its  healing 
powers  of  special  service."* 

*  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  VII.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvii.,  p.  no  et  seq. 


LEIPSIC  53 

Such  is  Goethe's  own  account,  and  we  give  it 
as  a  typical  instance  of  the  mixture  of  "  Poetry 
and  Truth  "  of  that  autobiography,  for,  as  the 
letters  and  other  sources  tend  to  show,  the  incident 
is  here  not  a  little  "  poetised  "  both  in  the  inver- 
sion of  roles,  the  perfect  sequence  of  the  whole, 
with  its  pretty  poetic  justice,  and  also  the  direct 
connection  of  the  somewhat  titanic  excesses  with 
the  illness,  which  was  probably,  in  a  far  larger 
degree,  due  to  more  prosaic  causes. 

All  the  same,  the  episode  has  many  poetic 
features.  Well  known  is  the  story  of  Goethe's 
cutting  Kiithchen's  name  above  his  own  in  the 
bark  of  a  linden  in  the  autumn  of  1 766,  the  time 
when  the  relationship  was  at  its  brightest,  and 
seeing  with  deep  emotion  the  following  spring 
how  the  sap  from  her  name  had  flowed  down  like 
a  flood  of  tears  over  his  own. 

Kiithehen  soon  afterwards  became  engaged  to  a 
Doktor  Kanne,  whom  Goethe  had  himself  intro- 
duced to  the  house,  and  as  Frau  Doktor  Kanne  he 
saw  her  on  the  occasion  of  a  visit  to  Leipsic  in  the 
March  of  1776. 

One  respect  in  which  the  incident  is  of  interest 
for  us  is  that  it  is  the  first  time  Goethe  was  moved 
on  a  larger  scale  to  have  recourse  to  the  relief 
of  the  literary  confessional,  or,  to  quote  his  own 
words,  "  to  turn  everything  which  rejoiced  or 
troubled  or  otherwise  occupied  me  into  a  picture 


54  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

or  a  poem,  and  so  have  done  with  it,  in  order  both 
to  correct  my  conceptions  of  external  objects  and 
also  to  attain  to  inward  calm.  This  gift,"  he 
continues,  "  was  for  no  one  more  necessary  than 
for  me,  as  my  nature  was  perpetually  throwing  me 
from  one  extreme  into  the  other.  All  my  works, 
therefore,  are  fragments  of  a  great  confession, 
to  complete  which  this  little  book  is  a  bold 
attempt."* 

Just  as  many  of  his  Leipsic  Lieder  enshrined 
some  actual  emotion  or  reflection,  and  were  based 
upon  some  foundation  of  fact,  so  now  he  turned 
his  relationship  to  Kiithchen  into  poetic  form. 

"  Already  before,  I  had  in  many  intervals  felt 
the  badness  of  my  behaviour  plainly  enough.  I 
was  really  sorry  for  the  poor  child  when  I  saw  her 
so  needlessly  troubled.  I  pictured  to  myself  her 
position  and  mine,  and  in  contrast  the  contented 
state  of  another  pair  belonging  to  our  society,  so 
often  and  in  such  detail,  that  at  last  I  could  not 
help  treating  the  subject  dramatically,  as  a  painful, 
and  at  the  same  time  instructive  atonement. "t 

This  was  his  first  drama,  Die  Laune  des  Vcrliebten 
— "The  Capricious  Lover,"  as  it  might  be  called — a 
pastoral  in  a  single  act,  written  in  the  French 
style  and  in  the  French  dramatic  verse,  the 

*  DicJitung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  VII.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvii.,  p.  109  et  seq. 

t  Ibiil.,  Weimar  edition,  vol.  xxvii.,  p.  112. 


LEIPSIC  55 

Alexandrine.  In  it  two  happy  lovers  are  con- 
trasted with  another  pair,  who  are  made  unhappy 
by  the  caprice  and  jealousy  of  the  man,  who  is  at 
last  cured  by  being  led  by  a  friend  to  kiss  her, 
and  so  arouse  in  turn  the  jealousy  of  his  mistress. 
The  moral  is  the  same — namely,  the  common 
weakness  of  humanity — as  in  the  other  drama  of 
the  Leipsic  time,  Die  Mitschuldigen  (The  Fellow- 
Sinners),  only  that  there  the  picture  is  a 
gloomier  one,  and  is  no  less  than  the  lesson  of 
pessimistic  tolerance,  a  strange  conclusion  for  a 
youth  of  seventeen.  This,  again,  was,  even  if 
not  so  directly,  an  embodiment  of  personal  ex- 
periences. 

"  In  my  adventure  with  Gretchen,  and  through 
the  consequences  of  it,  I  had  early  gained  an 
insight  into  the  strange  labyrinths  by  which  civic 
society  is  undermined.  Religion,  morals,  law, 
rank,  circumstances,  and  habit  all  govern  only  the 
surface  of  the  life  of  a  town.  The  streets,  with 
their  rows  of  splendid  houses,  are  kept  clean,  and 
everyone  behaves  himself  while  in  them  with  all 
propriety  ;  but  within  things  are  often  only  the 
more  desolate,  and  a  polished  exterior  is  often 
only  a  thin  coat  glossing  over  a  crumbling  wall, 
which  collapses  overnight  with  an  effect  all  the 
more  terrible  for  breaking  rudely  in  upon  a  calm.";' 

*  Dlchtung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  VII.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvii.,  p.  113. 


56  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

This  pessimistic  view  of  society  Leipsic  had 
not  apparently  succeeded  in  improving,  and,  suffer- 
ing under  the  shock  of  one  whose  first  faith  has 
been  shattered,  he  seems  to  have  at  this  time 
doubted  the  whole  fabric  of  that  society  which 
had  seemed  to  him  so  fair  so  long  as  he  knew  it 
only  from  without. 

The  play  at  first  contained  only  one  act,  but  it 
was  afterwards  enlarged  to  three,  and  in  that 
form  republished  in  1787.  Both  these  early 
dramas  show  the  realistic  spirit  which  actuated 
Goethe's  work — the  impulse  to  seek  a  footing  in 
reality,  neither  blinking  nor  idealizing  facts,  but 
using  them  as  his  starting-point  in  the  search  for 
truth. 

Besides  these  two  plays,  and  several  others 
which  scarcely  got  beyond  their  exposition, 
Goethe  wrote  at  Leipsic  a  number  of  Lieder.  The 
poems  which  he  had  brought  with  him  from 
Frankfort  he  had  burnt  in  a  fit  of  gloom  and 
discouragement  before  he  had  been  in  Leipsic  six 
months.  His  favourite  modern  poets,  and  also 
some  of  his  own  productions,  which  he  recited 
without  naming  their  author,  were  criticised 
unsparingly  by  Frau  Bohme  and  others,  and  for  a 
time  he  despaired  of  his  own  taste  and  poetical 
talent. 

However,  the  poetic  impulse  still  continued  to 
stir  him.  He  gained  more  confidence  in  his  own 


LEIPSIC  57 

genius,  and  it  was  one  of  the  greatest  gains  of 
the  Leipsic  time  that  he  began  to  be  fully 
conscious  of  his  poet's  mission,  and  to  feel  that 
failure  and  success  depended  upon  himself  and 
the  presence  or  absence  of  native  inborn  genius, 
and  not  on  the  little  rules  and  regulations  of  a 
Gellert  or  anyone  else. 

Yet  the  poems  of  this  time,  in  spite  of  great 
ease  and  readiness  of  expression,  had  not  yet 
attained  to  that  directness  and  mastery  which 
was  first  apparent  in  the  poems  of  his  Strasburg 
days. 

We  have  two  collections  of  poems  of  the  time. 
The  one,  which  was  only  discovered  and  published 
in  1896,  is  a  small  manuscript  volume  of  lyrics, 
inspired  by  Kathchen,  and  bearing  the  title 
Annette,  the  interest  of  which  is  greater  than  its 
intrinsic  poetic  value.  The  other,  the  Leipziger 
Liederbuch,  which  contained  a  number  of  little 
songs  set  to  music  by  his  friend  Breitkopf,  though 
not  printed  till  after  his  return  to  Frankfort,  and 
though  containing  some  old  Frankfort  songs  in  a 
new  form,  is  devoted  almost  exclusively  to  the 
praise  of  Kathchen  and  to  the  Leipsic  life.  Only 
a  few  of  them  were  later  on  taken  up  into  the 
collections  of  his  works,  and  those  only  with 
considerable  alterations.  Though  containing  more 
pieces  of  merit  than  the  former,  it  is  marked,  too, 
by  artificiality,  and  the  expression  of  sentiments 


58  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

which  are  rather  conventional  than  personal. 
Occasional  poems  also  were  written,  flattering  and 
unflattering,  dedicated  to  his  fellow-students  and 
friends,  to  actresses,  and,  not  least,  to  the  pro- 
fessors and  other  dignitaries  of  Leipsic,  some  of 
which  brought  him  into  very  bad  odour  with  the 
authorities,  who  took  his  daring  flights  more 
seriously  than  they  deserved. 

Before  leaving  the  Leipsic  days,  mention  must 
be  made  of  the  principal  friends  who  exercised  an 
important  influence  upon  him  during  these  years 
of  development  and  formation.  Of  Schlosser,  his 
future  brother-in-law,  we  have  already  spoken. 
Another  Frankfort  friend,  who  arrived  at  Leipsic 
in  1766,  at  the  time  of  his  deepest  depression  and 
discouragement,  was  Johann  Adam  Horn,  who  for 
his  diminutive  size  was  nicknamed  Hornchen,  and 
whose  lively  nature  and  merry  good-humour  did 
much  to  shake  Goethe  out  of  his  brooding 
melancholy. 

But  the  man  who  had  most  influence  upon  him 
was  Ernst  Wolfgang  Behrisch,  a  man  many  years 
his  senior.  Behrisch  was  in  Leipsic  as  tutor  of  a 
young  nobleman,  a  post  which  he  lost  owing 
to  his  known  friendship  with  Goethe,  who  at  the 
time  enjoyed  a  reputation  which  he  fortunately 
did  not  deserve.  He  was  a  whimsical  fellow, 
remarkable  before  all  as  a  connoisseur  in  the  art 
of  being  busy  without  doing  anything,  but  full  of 


LEIPSIC  59 

odd  quirks  and  turns  that  made  him  an  ever- 
entertaining  companion.  Yet  under  this  external 
levity  there  lay  keen  insight  and  no  mean  critical 
faculty,  and  to  his  moderating  and  restraining 
influence  and  healthy  cynicism  Goethe  owed  a 
debt  similar  to  that  which  Merck  laid  upon  him  a 
few  years  later.  Their  friendship  continued  un- 
abated, and  their  correspondence  was  only  ended 
by  the  death  of  Behrisch  in  1809. 

The  end  of  Goethe's  Leipsic  years  was  darkened 
by  severe  and  dangerous  illness.  One  night  he 
woke  with  a  violent  haemorrhage,  and  for  several 
days  hung  between  life  and  death.  With  his 
recovery  he  experienced  a  twofold  inward  satis- 
faction, for  not  only  did  he  feel  a  lightness  of 
spirits  to  which  he  had  long  been  a  stranger,  but 
the  solicitude  and  care  of  his  nearest  friends,  and 
of  others  whom  he  had  imagined  quite  indifferent 
to  his  welfare,  and  even  of  some  who  had  less  than 
no  occasion  to  love  him,  moved  him  deeply,  and 
appear  to  have  done  something  to  counteract  the 
gloomy  view  of  his  fellow-men  which  he  had 
formed  on  such  limited  data. 

His  recovery  was  slow,  but  in  September  he 
was  well  enough  to  set  out  once  more  for  his 
native  city.  He  had  left  Frankfort  full  of  hope 
and  in  the  exuberant  spirits  of  youth ;  he  returned 
ill  and  discoui-aged,  with  the  consciousness  of  not 
having  fulfilled  the  objects  his  father  had  in  view 


60  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

in  sending  him,  and  not  very  sure  how  far  he  had 
succeeded  in  those  which  he  had  himself  elected 
to  pursue.  Yet  if  he  returned  a  sadder,  he  was 
also  a  wiser  man,  and  he  had  in  those  three  short 
years  made  a  not  inconsiderable  advance  in  the 
attainment  of  that  experience  which  it  became 
his  life's  task  to  achieve.  And,  above  all,  he 
returned  with  the  settled  conviction  that,  in  spite 
of  the  worthlessness  of  much  that  he  had  already 
written,  and  in  spite  of  his  many  failures,  there 
dwelt  in  him  a  poetic  gift  that  depended  on  no 
mere  imitation,  and  would  owe  its  fate  to  no 
school  and  no  rule,  but  by  inward  growth  and 
development  must  work  its  own  salvation. 


CHAPTER  IV 

HOME    AGAIN 

IT  is  an  interesting  picture  Goethe  gives  us  of 
the  return  to  the  home  of  his  childhood 
after  his  first  real  absence.  No  wonder  that  the 
thought  of  returning,  and  of  the  various  wel- 
comes he  would  receive,  threw  him  into  a  state 
of  strained,  and  by  no  means  wholly  pleasant 
anticipation. 

"  The  nearer  I  approached  my  native  town,  the 
more  seriously  did  I  reflect  under  what  circum- 
stances and  in  what  hopes  and  prospects  I  had 
left  home,  and  it  was  a  very  depressing  feeling 
that  I  was  now  returning  like  a  shipwrecked 
mariner.  But  as  I  had  not,  after  all,  anything 
especially  great  to  reproach  myself  with,  I  managed 
to  remain  fairly  calm,  yet  all  the  same  the  welcome 
was  not  free  from  agitation.  The  great  vivacity 
of  my  temperament,  increased  and  excited  by 
illness,  caused  a  passionate  scene.  I  may  have 
looked  worse  than  I  myself  knew,  for  I  had  not 
consulted  a  mirror  for  a  long  time,  and  who  does 
61 


62  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

not  get  used  to  his  own  appearance  ?  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  it  was  tacitly  agreed  that  many  com- 
munications should  only  be  made  by  degrees,  and 
that  time  should  be  given  before  all  for  physical 
and  mental  recuperation. 

"  My  sister  at  once  became  very  intimate,  and, 
as  formerly  from  her  letters,  I  now  learnt  more 
exactly  and  in  detail  the  circumstances  and 
position  of  the  family.  My  father  had  after  my 
departure  given  my  sister  the  whole  advantage  of 
his  didactic  proclivities ;  and  the  house  being  fully 
isolated,  in  all  the  security  of  peace,  and  vacated 
even  by  tenants,  he  had  cut  off  almost  all  means 
of  intercourse  with  the  outside  world  and  of  recrea- 
tion. French,  Italian,  English  she  had  to  work 
at  in  turn,  while  at  the  same  time  he  insisted  on 
her  practising  the  clavier  for  a  great  part  of  the 
day.  Writing,  too,  could  not  be  neglected,  and  I 
had  already  noticed  that  he  directed  her  corre- 
spondence with  me,  and  had  transmitted  to  me 
his  maxims  through  her  pen.  My  sister  was  always 
a  problematic  character,  the  strangest  compound 
of  severity  and  tenderness,  of  wilfulness  and  com- 
plaisance ;  which  qualities  were  now  united,  now 
divided,  by  will  and  affection.  Thus  she  had,  in  a 
manner  that  seemed  terrible  to  me,  hardened  her 
heart  against  her  father,  whom  she  would  not 
pardon  for  having  these  years  robbed  her  of,  or 
spoiled,  so  many  an  innocent  pleasure,  and  of 


HOME  AGAIN  63 

whose  excellent  qualities  she  would  not  recognise 
a  single  one."* 

No  wonder  that  this  sister,  to  whose  nature,  with 
all  its  many  contradictions,  love  was  an  absolute 
necessity,  turned  the  whole  flood  of  her  thwarted 
affections  upon  the  handsome,  clever  brother,  who 
made  an  even  greater  appeal  to  her  in  his  present 
state  of  illness  and  depression,  and  that  she 
devoted  all  her  time  to  spoiling  him,  and  trying  in 
every  way  to  raise  him  from  his  melancholy. 

The  father  was  now  in  the  possession  of  such 
happiness  as  he  knew  ;  the  time-table  of  the  little 
private  school  of  which  he  was  the  despotic 
director  was  now  no  longer  disturbed  from  with- 
out ;  such  time  as  could  be  spared  from  the 
education  of  his  daughter  he  devoted  to  the 
writing  of  his  travels,  and  the  playing,  or  rather 
the  tuning,  of  his  lute.  The  one  thing  that  would 
not  fit  into  its  pigeon-hole  was  this  strange  creature 
of  a  son,  who  would  not  let  himself  be  made  into 
a  respectable  advocate  in  the  proper  and  traditional 
way,  but  insisted  on  growing  and  developing 
according  to  some  principle  which  did  not  enter 
into  his  scheme  of  things. 

In  this  rigorous  establishment  the  bright,  merry 
little  mother  was  scarcely  more  happy  than  her 
daughter.  The  cares  of  the  simple  household 

*  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  VIII.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvii.,  p.  196  et  seq. 


64  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

were  not  sufficient  to  occupy  her  lively  tempera- 
ment, and  the  outside  interest  and  stimulus  which 
she  required  she  had  now  found  in  religion. 
Among  her  many  devout  friends  the  most  remark- 
able was  Susanna  Katharina  von  Klettenberg,  to 
whom  Goethe  raised  a  monument  in  the  Bekcnnt- 
nisse  einer  schonen  Secle  (Confessions  of  a  Beautiful 
Soul),  which  he  incorporated  in  Wilhelm  Mcister, 
and  which  was  not  only  founded  upon  the  experi- 
ences of  her  life,  but  also  owed  much  to  conversa- 
tions with  her  and  to  her  letters  and  manuscripts. 

Already  in  1765  she  had  had  some  influence 
on  him,  and  helped  to  inspire  the  writing  of  his 
poem  Uber  die  Hollenfahrt  Christi,  and  now  when 
he  returned  in  a  condition  of  physical  and  mental 
depression,  she  found  him  in  a  state  of  special 
receptivity  for  religious  impressions,  and  won,  for 
a  time  at  any  rate,  his  sympathy  for  the  views  and 
aspirations  of  the  pietistic  circle  to  which  she 
belonged. 

But  not  only  did  he  get  from  her  some  insight 
into  the  mystical  views  and  writings  of  the 
Moravians,  but  it  was  to  her  that  he  owed  that 
initiation  into  the  study  of  alchemy  which  bore 
fruit  later  in  Faust.  At  this  time,  too,  were  laid 
the  foundations  of  those  scientific  studies  and 
researches  which  assumed  such  a  large  importance 
in  his  later  life. 

Meantime  his  illness  continued  ;  he  had  frequent 


HOME  AGAIN  65 

relapses,  an  ulcer  on  the  neck  was  very  threaten- 
ing and  very  obstinate,  while  his  final  trouble  was 
a  painful  derangement  of  the  digestive  organs. 
When  at  last  he  was  cured  by  a  Moravian  doctor 
of  their  circle  by  the  administration  of  a  strange 
potion,  it  strengthened  still  further  for  the  time 
the  tendency  to  bury  himself  in  the  investigation 
of  mysterious  arts. 

The  return  to  Frankfort  had,  meantime,  by  no 
means  led  to  the  forgetting  of  old  Leipsic  friends ; 
on  the  contrary,  Frankfort  seems  at  first  to  have 
appeared  an  exile  after  that  city  of  light  and 
learning,  and  Frankfort  manners  and  mode  of  life 
an  unpleasant  contrast  to  those  of  the  enlightened 
Saxon  town.  He  corresponded  with  Oeser,  whom 
he  addressed  as  his  "dearest  teacher,"  and  also 
with  his  daughter  Friederike.  Greetings  are 
sent  to  old  friends,  while  he  both  writes  to  Kath- 
chen  and  sends  her  messages  through  others. 

As  time  went  on,  health  and  spirits  began  to 
mend ;  concerts  and  theatres  were  visited  once 
more.  At  this  period,  too,  and  not  before  the 
Leipsic  time,  as  is  stated  in  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit, 
all  the  merry  parties  and  picnics  took  place,  which 
kept  the  youthful  exile  in  a  constant  round  of 
gaieties. 

So  the  months  of  this  long  Frankfort  holiday 
passed  by,  which,  though  one  of  the  least  happy 
periods  of  his  life,  yet  was  of  value  as  a  time  of 
5 


66  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

recuperation  and  concentration  after  the  first  wild 
burst  of  life  at  Leipsic,  and  of  preparation  for  the 
more  serious  studies  which  were  to  follow.  As  his 
strength  returned  his  father  began  to  grow  im- 
patient for  the  continuation  of  the  course  which 
he  had  mapped  out  for  him,  and  in  the  spring  of 
1770  he  set  out  for  the  University  which  had  been 
chosen  for  the  completion  of  his  legal  studies. 


CHAPTER  V 

STRASBURG 

OETHE  arrived  in  Strasburg  on  April  2, 
1770,  and  left  it  on  his  twenty-second 
birthday,  August  28,  1771,  and  these  sixteen 
months  are  among  the  most  interesting  of  his  life, 
and  probably  the  most  important  for  his  mental 
development.  Though  not  half  the  length  of  his 
stay  in  Leipsic,  this  must  be  regarded  as  his  real 
experience  of  University  life.  Even  when  he  left 
Leipsic,  he  was  only  of  about  the  age  at  which  an 
English  school-boy  generally  enters  the  University 
to-day,  and  came  fresh  from  home  with  a  very 
limited  experience ;  now  he  was  entering  early 
manhood,  and  was  already  a  man  in  experience. 
It  is  true  that  he  did  not  here  any  more  than  at 
Leipsic  pursue  whole-heartedly  and  exclusively 
the  professional  studies  which  were  his  nominal 
aim,  yet  at  the  same  time  he  was  becoming  more 
conscious  of  himself  and  the  tendency  of  his  own 
powers,  and  was  no  longer  like  a  ship  without  a 
rudder,  as  he  might  almost  be  said  to  have  been 
5—2  67 


68  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

at  Leipsic.  Moreover,  during  this  second  Uni- 
versity time  he  had  the  good  fortune  to  make 
friends  whose  intellectual  aims  and  activities  were 
more  nearly  akin  to  his  own,  and  one  of  whom, 
Herder,  did  more  than  any  other  to  reduce  to 
conscious  plan  what  had  been  up  till  then  merely 
the  instinctive  direction  of  his  mind. 

Strasburg  was,  on  Goethe's  arrival  there,  still 
in  fact  a  German  University,  though  the  town 
had  been  for  almost  a  century  under  French 
dominion.  The  first  thing  he  sallied  forth  to  see 
was  the  famous  cathedral,  the  magnificent  Gothic 
structure  of  which  made  the  greatest  impression 
on  him. 

At  the  table  where  he  dined,  at  No.  13, 
Kramergasse,  which  was  kept  by  two  maiden 
ladies  named  Lauth,  all  the  guests  were  Germans, 
and  not  only  avoided  the  speaking  of  French,  but 
emphasized  their  German  nationality,  while  French 
literature  was  held  in  slight  esteem.  Gothic 
architecture  and  German  literature  both  increased 
their  hold  upon  him,  and  thus  the  culture  he  won 
from  the  nominally  French  city  was  essentially 
Teutonic. 

The  life  of  the  Alsatian  capital  was  a  very  gay 
one,  and  under  its  influence  the  restoration  of  his 
health  and  spirits  was  completed.  The  pietistic 
tendency  which  he  had  brought  with  him  from 
Frankfort  maintained  itself  for  a  time ;  but  we 


STRASBURG  69 

soon  see  him  throwing  off  all  moody  introspection 
and  entering  eagerly  into  the  life  around  him, 
taking  dancing  lessons,  and  making  all  the  changes 
which  were  necessary  in  order  to  fit  him  to  play 
a  part  in  the  society  into  which  he  was  intro- 
duced. 

Of  his  personal  appearance  at  the  time  we  have 
the  account  of  Jung  Stilling,  the  self-educated 
charcoal-burner,  who  soon  afterwards  joined  the 
company  at  table  in  the  Kramergasse  :  "  About 
twenty  people  dined  at  this  table,  and  they  came 
in  one  after  another.  There  was  one  especially, 
with  large  clear  eyes,  magnificent  brow,  and  fine 
build,  who  came  confidently  into  the  room, 
and  attracted  the  attention  of  Troost  and  Stilling. 
The  former  said  to  the  latter,  '  That  must  be  an 
exceptional  man.'  Stilling  assented,  but  believed 
they  might  both  have  to  endure  a  good  deal  of 
annoyance  from  him,  taking  him  for  a  wild  fellow. 
This  he  concluded  from  the  student's  free  and 
independent  manner ;  but  Stilling  was  much  mis- 
taken. Meantime  they  learnt  that  this  splendid 
fellow  was  called  Herr  Goethe."* 

This  meeting  was  the  opening  of  a  friendship 
between  the  simple-minded,  pietistic  dreamer  and 
the  brilliant  wealthy  youth,  surely  one  of  the 

*  Heinrich  Stilling*  Lebensgeschichte.  J.  H.  Jung  (genannt 
Stilling).  Sammtliche  Werke,  vol.  i.,  p.  341  et  leq. 
Stuttgart,  1857. 


70  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

strangest  combinations  in  history.  Instead  of  a 
tormentor,  Stilling  found  in  the  formidable- look- 
ing "  Herr  Goethe "  a  generous  champion  and 
defender. 

Another  member  of  the  company  who  greatly 
attracted  Goethe  was  the  actuary  Salzmann, 
who  sat  at  the  head  of  the  table  —  a  grave 
middle-aged  man  of  quiet  and  dignified  bearing. 
Himself  a  bit  of  an  old  dandy,  he  was  pos- 
sessed of  much  worldly  wisdom  and  experience, 
and  gave  the  grateful  youth  some  excellent 
practical  advice,  and  introductions  which  helped 
to  make  his  life  more  agreeable.  Once  more  we 
have  an  instance  of  Goethe's  catholicity  in  the 
choice  of  his  friends,  as  also  of  that  preference  for 
the  society  of  his  elders  which  was  characteristic 
of  his  early  life. 

Among  younger  members  of  the  company  must 
be  mentioned  Lerse,  whose  frank,  open,  manly 
character  particularly  attracted  him,  and  whose 
name  and  friendship  he  has  commemorated  in 
Gotz  von  Berlichiiigen ;  the  poet  Lenz  ;  and  Wey- 
land,  who  later  introduced  him  to  the  Brion  family 
at  Sesenheim. 

The  majority  of  the  party  were  medical  students, 
and  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  Goethe's  ready 
universality  of  interest  fired  by  this  new  influence. 
From  a  notebook  of  the  time,  which  gives  an 
account  of  his  studies  and  occupations,  we  learn 


STRASBURG  71 

that,  besides  a  most  wide  and  varied  course  of 
general  reading,  he  regularly  attended  lectures 
on  medical  subjects,  while  he  was  also  devoting 
himself  to  chemistry,  electricity,  and  chromatic 
subjects. 

He  had  begun  at  first  the  study  of  his  own 
subject  jurisprudence,  as  we  gather  from  letters, 
with  some  zeal,  which,  however,  soon  abated 
before  the  superior  attractions  of  other  more  con- 
genial branches  of  learning.  It  suffered  still  more 
when,  in  September  of  the  same  year,  he  made  in 
Herder  perhaps  the  most  important  acquaintance 
of  his  life,  and  his  thoughts  were  powerfully 
diverted  into  new  channels. 

Johann  Gottfried  Herder  (1744-1803)  came 
first  to  Strasburg  as  tutor  of  the  young  Prince  of 
Holstein-Eutin,  but,  after  parting  from  his  pupil, 
stayed  on  for  the  whole  of  the  winter  1770-71, 
in  order  to  undergo  a  course  of  treatment  for  an 
affection  of  the  eye  from  which  he  was  then 
suffering.  His  arrival  caused  great  excitement  in 
the  circle,  as  Goethe  himself  informs  us  :  "  Our 
society,  on  hearing  of  his  presence,  was  at  once 
greatly  desirous  of  coming  into  a  closer  relation- 
ship with  him,  and  the  good  fortune  of  doing 
so  fell  to  my  lot  quite  unexpectedly  and  acci- 
dentally. I  had  gone  to  the  Gasthof  zum  Geist 
in  order  to  call  upon  an  important  stranger.  At 
the  very  foot  of  the  stairs  I  found  a  man  who 


72  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

was  also  about  to  ascend,  and  whom  I  took  for  a 
minister."* 

With  powdered  hair,  dressed  in  black,  and 
wearing  in  addition  a  long  black  silk  cloak,  he 
presented  a  strange  but  at  the  same  time  pleasing 
and  distinguished  appearance,  and  Goethe  recog- 
nised him  at  once  for  the  famous  arrival,  and 
approached  him  in  a  way  that  showed  both  his 
recognition  and  esteem.  Herder,  too,  appears  to 
have  been  attracted  by  the  younger  man,  who, 
although  he  was,  of  course,  unknown  to  him, 
seems  to  have  aroused  his  interest,  and  before 
they  parted  Goethe  had  asked  and  received  the 
permission  to  call  upon  him  in  his  own  quarters. 
He  did  so,  and  at  first  Herder,  both  by  his  fame 
and  his  own  personality,  seems  to  have  exercised 
a  great  fascination  over  him,  and  to  have  won  his 
unlimited  confidence.  It  was  not  long,  however, 
before  the  less  pleasing  side  of  his  character, 
which  later  became  so  pronounced,  began  to 
show  itself,  and  kept  his  young  admirer  in  a  con- 
stant state  of  alternation  between  repulsion  and 
attraction. 

Herder  was  only  five  years  older  than  Goethe, 
but  he  was  at  that  time  far  more  in  advance  of 
him  in  experience  of  men  and  books  than  in  years. 
His  was  a  very  different  nature  from  Goethe's 

*  Dlcktung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  X.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvii.,  p.  303. 


STRASBURG  73 

—  without  its  heights  and  its  depths,  and  for 
being  smaller  the  more  quickly  matured.  Thus, 
being  precisely  conscious  of  his  aims,  and  pur- 
suing them  undisturbed  by  any  of  those  stirrings 
of  the  very  depths  of  feeling  and  consciousness  by 
which  more  elemental  natures  are  retarded,  as  by 
a  kind  of  natural  convulsion,  he  had  attained  at  a 
comparatively  early  age  a  certain  completeness, 
and  in  this  respect  was  the  superior  of  the  rough- 
hewn  Titan,  whose  virtual  admission  of  inferiority 
he  seems  to  have  himself  regarded  as  only  just 
and  fitting.  In  that,  too,  Goethe  showed  himself 
the  greater  of  the  two,  that  he  recognised  the 
excellences  of  the  other,  and  assimilated,  as 
everywhere,  something  for  himself;  while  the 
genius  of  Herder  did  not  permit  him  to  recognise 
duly  gifts  still  more  extraordinary. 

While  Herder's  malady  confined  him  to  his 
room,  Goethe  was  the  chief  among  those  whose 
visits  helped  to  fill  the  time  of  imprisonment. 
Their  intercourse  was  not  always  of  a  pleasant 
nature  for  the  younger  man,  for  Herder  did  not 
refrain  from  venting  his  ill-humours  upon  him, 
nor  from  making  at  his  expense  jokes  which  were 
not  always  in  the  best  of  taste.  Goethe,  however, 
characteristically  regarded  all  such  unpleasantness 
as  more  than  compensated  by  the  intellectual  gain 
by  which  they  were  accompanied.  So  we  read  in 
Dichtimg  wul  Wahrheit,  where,  after  speaking  of 


74  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

what  he  had  to  endure  in  this  way,  he  adds  that 
"  there  was  no  day  which  was  riot  most  fruitful  in 
instruction  for  me.  I  learnt  to  know  poetry  from 
quite  another  side  and  in  quite  a  different  sense 
from  before,  and  in  one  which  strongly  appealed 
tome.  Hebrew  poetry  .  .  .  popular  poetry  .  .  . 
the  oldest  records  as  poetry,  bore  testimony  that 
poetry  itself  is  a  common  gift  of  all  nations,  and 
not  the  private  inheritance  of  a  few  refined  and 
cultured  men."* 

Herder  was  himself  influenced  by  the  writings 
of  that  eccentric  genius  Hamann  (1730-1788),  the 
"  Magus  of  the  North,"  with  whose  writings  he 
now  made  Goethe  acquainted,  and  they  too  made, 
though  but  half  understood,  a  powerful,  if  some- 
what vague  impression  upon  the  young  poet. 

To  Herder  Goethe  owed  it  that  the  world  of 
literature  now  became  for  him  a  wider  one,  in 
which  quite  different  figures  loomed  largely  upon 
the  horizon.  He  learnt  to  regard  poetry  as  the 
natural  outgrowth  of  the  human  soul,  arising 
spontaneously  from  instinct  and  feeling,  like  the 
song  of  the  birds,  and  that  it  must  be  judged  by 
the  standard  of  nature  and  by  no  artificial  literary 
canons.  So,  too,  he  learned  to  look  for  the 
greatest  achievements  in  the  field  of  literature  in 
those  periods  when  literature  had  arisen  most 

*  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  X.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxvii.,  p.  313. 


STRASBURG  75 

spontaneously  and  most  free  from  all  artificial 
trammels,  and  to  see  the  noblest  fruits  of  poetry 
in  the  works  of  those  men  who  had  written  out 
of  the  rude  fulness  of  their  own  hearts,  rather 
than  in  the  more  polished  productions  of  their 
successors  and  imitators.  The  Bible,  Homer, 
Ossian,  Shakespeare  became  for  him  now  the 
world's  great  books — mighty  outgrowths  of  a 
universal  spirit  of  poetry  above  which  they  towered, 
but  from  which  they  derived  their  strength,  and 
which  alone  made  them  possible.  Of  them  all 
perhaps  it  was  Shakespeare  who  affected  him  most 
powerfully,  and  his  influence  on  the  works  of  the 
following  years  is  clearly  marked. 

Another  English  work  the  acquaintance  with 
which  he  owed  to  his  widely-read  Mentor  was 
Goldsmith's  Vicar  of  Wakefield,  which  had  appeared 
four  years  before,  and  the  idyllic  charm  of  which 
at  once  captivated  his  fancy.  To  that  book  was, 
perhaps,  in  some  measure  due  the  part  Goethe 
played  in  the  idyll  which  is  for  us  for  ever  con- 
nected with  the  Strasburg  time,  and  the  recital 
of  which  forms  one  of  the  most  beautiful  parts  of 
his  own  story  of  his  early  life. 

Fresh  from  Goldsmith's  world,  he  was  intro- 
duced by  his  Alsatian  friend  Weyland  to  the 
family  of  Pastor  Brion  of  Sesenheim,  a  village 
some  twenty  miles  from  Strasburg,  and  his  imagina- 
tion seems  at  once  to  have  seen  himself  and  them 


76  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

in  the  terms  of  that  romance,  and  to  have  woven 
fact  and  fancy  into  one  attractive  whole. 

The  parsonage  was  already  more  than  200 
years  old,  and  with  its  open  yard  and  the  big 
barn,  which  alone  remains  of  the  buildings  of 
Goethe's  day,  was  like  a  picturesque  old  farm- 
house, rather  below  than  above  the  Alsatian 
standard  of  the  day.  To-day  a  new  Pfarrhaiis  of 
very  modern  appearance  replaces  the  hospitable 
if  homely  dwelling  which  Goethe  has  immorta- 
lized ;  while  the  church  in  which,  at  Friederike's 
side,  even  the  pastor's  somewhat  dry  discourse 
seemed  endurable  is  soon  to  lose  the  form  he 
knew. 

The  father  was  a  kind  and  simple-hearted  man, 
between  whom  and  the  young  student  there  at 
once  arose  a  mutual  regard,  and  there  were  two 
unmarried  daughters,  of  whom  the  younger, 
Friederike,  at  once  captivated  the  poet's  fancy. 
She  was  slender  and  graceful,  with  merry  blue 
eyes  and  a  small  nose,  slightly  tip-tilted,  which 
only  served  to  give  a  still  more  piquant  expression 
to  her  face.  Her  heavy  fair  hair  was  worn  in  two 
long  plaits,  and  this,  together  with  the  old  national 
costume  of  short  round  skirt,  white  bodice,  and 
black  apron,  gave  to  her  appearance  something  on 
the  borderland  between  peasant  and  townswoman. 
Altogether  we  cannot  wonder  that  Goethe  felt 
the  seductiveness  of  this  idyll  in  real  life,  and 


STRASBURG  77 

made  the  graceful  country  parson's  daughter  the 
first  real  mistress  of  his  heart. 

One  of  the  capricious  whims  which  were  charac- 
teristic of  him  in  his  youth  had  prompted  him  to 
come  disguised  as  a  poor  theological  student,  but 
this  assumed  role  became  under  the  circumstances 
distasteful  to  him.  It  was  in  his  own  character 
that  he  stayed  on  and  gave  himself  up  to  all  the 
delights  of  Friederike's  society,  and  before  long 
he  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  he  was  not 
indifferent  to  her.  A  mutual  understanding  was 
soon  arrived  at,  and  both  enjoyed  under  the  most 
favourable  conditions  all  the  delights  of  that 
happy  period  when  each  is  confident  of  the  other's 
love,  and  no  thoughts  of  future  complications,  and 
no  intrusion  of  the  hard  facts  of  life,  have  yet 
come  to  disturb  the  first  unreasoning  happiness. 
Like  all  other  stirring  events  of  his  life,  his  love 
to  Friederike  was  the  inspiration  of  several  of  his 
songs,  and  among  the  poems  of  the  time,  of  which 
some  ten  are  directly  addressed  to  her,  are  some  of 
Goethe's  best  lyrics,  showing  in  their  naturalness 
and  spontaneity  and  absence  of  all  literary  affec- 
tation the  great  gain  in  insight  and  poetic  mastery 
which  he  had  achieved. 

The  first  visit  to  Sesenheim  took  place  in  the 
autumn  of  1770,  and  during  the  following  winter 
visits  to  Friederike's  home  formed  the  chief  inter- 
ruptions to  his  studies  and  his  intercourse  with 


78  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

Herder.  With  the  latter's  departure  in  the  spring, 
and  the  return  of  the  fine  weather,  they  became 
still  more  frequent,  and  for  a  time,  amid  a_  round 
of  country  pleasures  and  in  a  setting  of  the 
pleasant  Alsatian  scenery,  nothing  seemed  wanting 
to  make  the  idyll  complete.  The  two  appear  to 
have  been  treated  as  recognised  lovers ;  the  course 
of  true  love  seemed  to  be  running  very  smooth. 
Amid  the  surroundings  and  in  company  with  the 
friends  of  her  childhood,  Friederike  showed  to 
advantage ;  there  was  nothing  to  give  the  son  of 
the  wealthy  Frankfort  burgher  a  sense  of  unfit- 
ness  where  he,  rather  than  she,  was  incongruous. 

The  thought  that  he  must  soon  depart  and 
take  up  again  a  very  different  life  may  have  arisen 
at  times  like  a  faint  cloud  on  the  horizon,  but 
there  was  no  serious  disturbance  of  their  mutual 
happiness  till  July,  when  the  mother  and  daughters 
paid  a  visit  to  Strasburg.  Here,  amid  other  com- 
panions and  in  other  surroundings,  the  simplicity 
and  naivete,  which  at  Sesenheim  had  appeared 
only  piquant  and  charming,  may  have  served  to 
emphasize  the  difference  between  the  life  and 
fortunes  of  the  lovers,  and  to  impress  upon  Goethe 
how  unsuited  this  country  girl  was  for  the  future 
he  would  have  to  offer  her. 

What  the  reasons  were  that  led  to  the  final 
parting  is  not  quite  clear.  It  may  have  been  that 
his  love  had  cooled ;  it  may  be  that  returning 


STRASBURG  79 

reflection  had  shown  him  their  unsuitability  for 
one  another ;  it  may  have  been  a  half-unconscious 
feeling  that  he  had  not  yet  run  his  course,  and  that 
he  could  not  lay  fetters  upon  himself;  or  it  may  have 
been  some  reason  quite  foreign  to  these,  and  to 
which  we  have  no  clue.  However  it  be,  when  he 
paid  his  last  visit  to  Sesenheirn,  after  taking  his 
degree  and  when  about  to  return  to  Frankfort,  it 
was  felt  to  be  the  end,  though  he  only  wrote  the 
final  farewell  after  his  return  home.  There  was 
an  affecting  scene,  and  he  tells  us  how  the  tears 
stood  in  her  eyes  as  he  gave  her  his  hand  from  his 
horse,  while  he  himself  was  deeply  moved. 

Nor  did  the  painful  impression  of  the  parting  and 
of  the  grief  he  had  given  Friederike  quickly  leave 
him,  for  though,  perhaps,  in  his  own  account  there 
may  be  some  poetical  exaggeration,  and  his  guilt 
and  her  grief  may  be  both  made  more  tragically 
acute,  yet  there  is  no  doubt  that  he  long  retained 
a  feeling  of  remorse  for  the  sorrow  he  had,  how- 
ever unwillingly,  brought  upon  the  gentle,  simple 
girl.  In  several  of  the  works  of  the  following 
years  we  find  a  Friederike,  and  the  Maria  of 
Gotz,  the  Marie  of  Clavigo,  the  Clarchen  of  Egmont, 
and  the  Gretchen  of  Faust,  may  be  regarded  as  a 
confession  of  his  own  regret  at  what  had  happened. 

Whatever  may  have  been  his  own  feelings  in 
the  matter,  neither  Friederike  nor  her  family 
appear  to  have  judged  him  harshly,  and  when, 


8o  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

eight  years  afterwards,  on  the  way  to  Switzerland, 
he  passed  a  night  at  Sesenheim,  he  was  received 
with  every  kindness  by  all,  and  even  went  over 
with  Friederike  in  memory  the  scenes  they  had 
passed  through  together  years  before.  She  died 
in  1813,  unmarried,  it  is  true,  though  that  she 
lived  broken-hearted  all  those  years  seems  a  some- 
what forced  interpretation  of  such  facts  as  we 
possess. 

In  August,  1771,  Goethe  returned  to  Frankfort, 
this  time  as  a  Doctor  of  Law,  and  in  a  more  suc- 
cessful guise  in  every  way  than  on  his  return  from 
Leipsic  three  years  before.  At  Strasburg,  even  if 
he  had  not  devoted  himself  whole-heartedly  to 
his  legal  studies,  he  had,  at  any  rate,  formally  com- 
pleted them ;  and  although  he  returned  with  a 
mind  not  free  from  oppression,  yet  he  was  both 
mentally  and  physically  sound  and  strong. 


CHAPTER  VI 

STORM    AND    STRESS 

IN  his  native  city  Goethe  remained  till  May  of 
the  following  year,  practising  his  profession, 
though  without  enthusiasm,  and  finding  relief 
from  the  unsettled  state  of  mind  into  which  he 
was  thrown  by  this  conflict  of  duty  and  inclina- 
tion, and  by  the  want  of  congenial  society  in 
Frankfort,  in  frequent  wanderings  up  and  down 
the  country,  and  in  poems  in  which  this  most 
stormy  time  of  his  youth  is  reflected.  These 
somewhat  erratic  journeyings  of  his  won  for  him 
the  name  of  "  The  Wanderer,"  and  of  the  songs 
of  this  period  the  Wanderers  Sturmlied  is  the  most 
remarkable,  and  gives  us  the  clearest  picture  of 
the  restless  mental  condition  in  which  he  then 
was. 

In  Frankfort  itself  his  only  real  friends  and 
allies  were  the  two  brothers  Schlosser — one  of 
whom,  Johann  Georg,  afterwards  married  his 
sister — and  Cornelia  herself,  who  better  than  any- 
one else  appreciated  his  ideals  and  sympathized 
6  81 


82  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

with  his  literary  aspirations.  In  the  neighbouring 
town  of  Darmstadt,  however,  he  found  what  he 
missed  at  home.  There  the  Landgravine  Caroline 
had  formed  a  literary  circle,  which  counted  among 
its  members  Caroline  Flachsland,  later  the  wife  of 
Herder,  and  of  which  the  guiding  spirit  was 
Johann  Heinrich  Merck,  a  man  of  thirty,  who 
was  at  the  time  an  official  in  the  War  Department 
of  that  place. 

Merck  was  a  man  of  clear  critical  insight,  with 
an  experience  of  the  world  which  made  him 
suspicious  of  all  extremes,  and,  though  not  himself 
possessed  of  very  great  creative  power,  seems  to 
have  exercised  a  great  stimulating  influence  on  all 
those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  On  Goethe 
he  had  a  great  and  wholesome  influence,  at  a 
time  when  he  was  inclined  to  carry  revolt  against 
artistic  law  to  the  point  of  license,  and  Goethe  has 
been  by  no  means  sparing  in  acknowledgment  of 
the  debt  he  owed  him. 

Stimulating  friendship  and  criticism,  together 
with  some  sharp  first-hand  experience  of  life,  had 
at  length  fully  awakened  his  creative  genius,  and 
this  period  is  one  of  great  productive  activity. 

Shakespeare  had  opened  up  a  new  world  to 
him,  and  it  was  partly  the  enthusiasm  which  his 
genius  had  aroused  that  made  him  see  in  the 
story  of  a  knight  of  the  Middle  Ages,  Gotz  von 
Berlichingen,  a  subject  in  which  to  clothe  in  a 


GOTZ   VON    IIEKLICHINGEN 


STORM  AND  STRESS  83 

living  garb  the  whole  spirit  of  the  turbulent 
sixteenth  century.  He  saw  the  subject  with  the 
new  vision  which  the  study  of  Shakespeare  had 
given  him,  and  after  carrying  the  idea  for  some 
time  in  his  mind,  he  at  last  threw  off  the  first 
sketch  in  the  autumn  of  1771,  in  closest  consulta- 
tion with  his  sister  Cornelia,  in  the  short  space  of 
six  weeks. 

Very  interesting  is  his  own  account  of  how, 
after  long  discussing  the  subject  with  her,  he  was 
at  last  driven,  by  her  well-meant  scepticism  as  to 
its  ever  getting  beyond  the  mere  conception,  to 
set  to  work.  Without  any  scheme  or  plan  he 
wrote  away,  reading  to  her  at  night  what  he  had 
produced,  and  so,  stimulated  by  her  frank  criticism, 
and  surprised  himself  to  see  the  work  growing 
beneath  his  hands,  he  carried  it  rapidly  and  with- 
out interruption  to  a  conclusion. 

As  Die  Geschichte  Gottfriedens  von  Berlich- 
ingen  mit  der  eisernen  Hand,  dramatisiert,  he 
sent  it  to  Merck,  whose  criticisms  were  very 
sensible  and  kindly,  and  to  Herder,  whose  com- 
ments were  very  unfriendly  and  severe,  and  who 
made  it  the  occasion  of  bestowing  upon  its  author 
not  a  little  ridicule,  and,  after  his  wont,  conferring 
upon  him  new  nicknames. 

However,  he  was  not  discouraged.  He  had 
himself  only  regarded  this  as  a  first  draft,  capable 
of  indefinite  alteration  and  improvement,  and  of 
6—2 


84  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

that  remodelling  and  the  vast  importance  of  the 
work  both  for  the  literature  of  Germany  and  as  a 
decisive  factor  in  Goethe's  own  literary  career  we 
shall  have  to  speak  in  due  place. 

After  this  short  time  at  home,  which  had  yet 
seen  the  inception  of  the  work  which  laid  the 
foundations  of  his  literary  fame,  Goethe  once  more 
left  his  native  city  for  the  prosecution  of  his 
studies,  going  to  complete  his  legal  preparation  by 
experience  in  the  Reichskammergericht,  the  Imperial 
Court  of  Justice,  which  was  situated  in  the  little 
city  of  Wetzlar-on-the-Lahn. 

There,  where  the  quiet  little  town  itself  was  in 
strange  contrast  to  its  dignity  as  legal  capital  of 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  and  only  served  by  its 
very  peacefulness  and  provinciality  to  throw  into 
stronger  relief  the  varied  society  of  students, 
officials,  and  embassies,  gathered  from  far  and 
wide,  Goethe  soon  found  congenial  company. 

Among  the  younger  spirits  a  society  had  been 
initiated  under  all  the  forms  of  a  knightly  order, 
the  members  of  which  tried  to  revive  in  a  measure 
the  spirit  of  old  days  of  chivalry,  and  of  this 
society  Goethe  became  a  prominent  member, 
bearing  the  title  of  his  hero  Gotz.  Even  in  this 
fanciful  way  the  old  theme  was  kept  ever  fresh  in 
his  thoughts. 

For  us  the  Wetzlar  days  are  before  all  con- 
nected with  the  thought  of  Werther,  and  to  trace 


STORM  AND  STRESS  85 

to  their  beginnings  the  circumstances  which  led 
to  the  production  of  that  world-famed  story  we 
must  speak  of  the  formation  of  a  friendship  which 
was  the  turning-point  of  this  period,  as  a  man's 
friendship  was  for  more  than  one  epoch  of  Goethe's 
life. 

This  friend  was  Kestner,  Secretary  to  the  Hano- 
verian Legation.  As  was  usually  the  case  with  the 
men  who  most  attracted  Goethe  in  his  youth, 
Kestner  was  considerably  his  senior,  being  thirty- 
two  years  of  age,  and  his  steady,  conscientious, 
settled  character  was  in  striking  contrast  to  the  im- 
pulsive nature  of  the  youthful  genius.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  see  how  Goethe  appeared  in  the  eyes  of  such 
a  man,  and  Kestner's  description  gives  the  best 
picture  we  possess  of  him  at  this  period  of  his  life. 

"  He  has  great  talents,  and  is  a  true  genius  and 
man  of  character ;  possesses  an  extraordinarily 
vivid  imagination,  for  which  reason  he  mostly 
expresses  himself  in  images  and  similes.  .  .  .  He 
is  violent  in  all  his  emotions,  and  has  nevertheless 
often  much  power  over  himself.  His  sentiments 
are  lofty ;  being  little  under  the  dominion  of 
prejudice,  he  acts  as  he  thinks  fit,  without 
troubling  himself  whether  it  pleases  others,  is  the 
fashion  or  the  correct  thing.  All  restraint  is 
hateful  to  him.  He  loves  children,  and  under- 
stands them  wonderfully.  He  is  odd,  and  has  in 
his  manner  and  in  externals  much  that  might  make 


86  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

him  unpleasant ;  but  with  children,  women,  and 
many  others,  he  is,  for  all  that,  a  favourite.  For 
the  other  sex  he  has  a  very  great  esteem.  .  .  . 
He  is  a  striver  after  truth,  but  thinks  more  of  its 
feeling  than  its  demonstration.  He  has  already 
done  much,  knows  much,  and  has  read  much,  but 
thought  and  reasoned  still  more.  He  has  made 
the  study  of  belles-lettres  his  principal  business,  ov, 
rather,  all  study,  with  the  sole  exception  of  the 
so-called  'bread-studies.'  " 

Kestner  introduced  Goethe  to  the  family  of  one 
of  the  officials  of  the  Teutonic  Order,  named  Buff, 
who  lived  in  the  Teutsche  Haus,  which  was  then 
the  property  of  the  knights  of  that  Order,  and 
which  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  main  street  of 
Wetzlar  to-day. 

At  a  ball  Goethe  met  for  the  first  time  the 
second  daughter,  Charlotte,  familiarly  known  as 
Lotte,  by  whom  he  was  at  this  first  meeting  very 
much  attracted,  only  to  find  later  that  she  was 
already  as  good  as  engaged  to  his  friend. 

He  became  a  regular  visitor  at  the  Teutsche 
Haus,  and  there  he  learnt  to  know  Lotte  in  the 
character  of  a  mother  to  her  ten  younger  brothers 
and  sisters.  Hers  was  an  exceptionally  entire 
character.  Not  only  was  she,  with  her  masses  of 
fair  hair,  bright  blue  eyes,  and  graceful  figure, 
probably  the  most  beautiful  of  all  those  who 
captivated  Goethe's  heart,  but  she  possessed  a 


STORM  AND  STRESS  87 

rare  mental  endowment,  which  made  her  equally 
susceptible  to  the  ideal  and  beautiful,  and  capable 
of  grappling  with  the  necessities  of  practical  life. 
It  seems  to  have  been  a  most  genuine  compound 
of  passion,  sympathy,  admiration,  and  honest 
respect,  which  went  to  make  up  Goethe's  ever- 
increasing  love. 

Lotte  knew  of  his  love,  and  he  did  not  conceal 
from  Kestner  that  he  loved  "with  him."  For  a 
time  all  seemed  to  go  well,  and  all  appeared  to 
think  that  this  most  unconventional  triangular 
arrangement  could  continue  indefinitely.  On 
August  28,  which,  by  a  strange  coincidence,  was 
both  Goethe's  and  Kestner's  birthday,  the  double 
celebration  took  place  at  Lotte's  house,  but  after 
that  matters  appear  to  have  advanced  rapidly  to  a 
climax.  The  last  meeting  was  on  September  10 
in  the  Tetttsche  Hans,  and  then  the  conversation 
between  Goethe  and  Lotte  turned  on  the  subject 
of  suicide,  on  which  he  had  been  for  some  time 
brooding.  Their  conversation  seems  altogether  to 
have  taken  a  very  morbid  turn,  and  the  effect  on 
Goethe's  already  overwrought  mind  was  such  as 
to  convince  him  that  the  situation  was  for  him  no 
longer  bearable,  and  that  the  only  course  was 
flight.  On  September  1 1 ,  without  a  word  of 
warning,  and  sending  only  a  short  and  agitated 
letter  of  farewell  to  Kestner,  with  an  enclosure 
for  Lotte,  he  suddenly  departed,  probably  in 


88  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

pursuance  of  the  advice  of  Merck,  whom  he  had 
consulted  in  his  trouble. 

Such  was  the  story  which  later,  together  with 
an  admixture  of  fancy,  and  coloured  by  Goethe's 
vivid  and  dramatic  imagination,  became  the 
property  of  the  whole  civilized  world. 

That  things  were  at  the  time  by  no  means 
tuned  to  a  tragic  note,  even  on  Goethe's  part, 
and  certainly  not  on  Lotte's,  all  the  facts  go  to 
prove. 

Kestner  tells  us  that  Lotte  had  a  good  cry  over 
Goethe's  departure,  and  the  loss  he  would  be  to 
them  ;  and  when  soon  after  the  affianced  pair 
were  married,  it  was  Goethe  who  furnished  the 
wedding-ring,  while  their  first  boy  received  his 
name  of  Wolfgang. 

As  for  Goethe  himself,  after  leaving  Wetzlar  in 
this  somewhat  melodramatic  fashion,  he  proceeded 
with  Merck  down  the  Lahn  Valley  to  Ehrenbreit- 
stein,  where  the  latter  introduced  him  to  the 
house  of  Frau  von  Laroche,  and  where  he  seems 
to  have  sufficiently  recovered  to  have  taken  a 
very  tender  interest  in  her  black-eyed  daughter 
Maximiliane. 

Frankfort  was  reached  on  September  21,  and 
the  very  next  day  he  was  visited  by  Kestner,  who 
met  him  again  with  pleasure  and  in  the  most 
friendly  manner. 

He   now    plunged    himself    into    work    again, 


STORM  AND  STRESS  89 

though  Wetzlar  was  not  forgotten,  a  lively  corre- 
spondence being  kept  up  with  the  lovers,  and  a 
silhouette  of  Lotte,  hung  over  his  bed,  serving  to 
keep  her  still  more  vividly  in  his  memory. 

In  November  he  went  with  his  future  brother- 
in-law,  Schlosser,  to  Wetzlar,  and  there  he  learnt 
of  the  death  of  Jerusalem,  a  young  man  attached 
to  the  Brunswick  Legation,  whom  he  had  known 
at  Leipsic,  but  of  whom  he  had  seen  little  at 
Wetzlar.  Jerusalem  was  of  a  silent,  moody  tem- 
perament, and  a  hopeless  passion  for  the  wife  of 
another,  added  to  disappointment  at  missing  the 
hoped-for  success  in  his  profession,  had  driven  him 
to  despair,  and,  borrowing  from  Kestner  a  pair  of 
pistols  on  the  pretence  of  being  about  to  under- 
take a  journey,  he  shot  himself  on  the  night  of 
October  29.  Goethe  persuaded  Kestner  to  narrate 
to  him  all  the  circumstances  in  detail,  and  made 
of  the  sad  incident  one  of  the  elements  of  his 
Werther  story. 

But  before  Werther  there  appeared  another 
work  which  once  for  all  established  his  literary 
reputation  upon  a  solid  basis.  This  was  Gotz, 
which  had  been  rewritten  since  the  return  from 
Wetzlar,  and  was  published  by  him  at  his  own 
expense,  with  the  help  of  Merck,  in  its  present 
form. 

Its  success  was  phenomenal,  and  it  spread 
through  the  whole  of  Germany,  though  Goethe, 


90  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

thanks  to  a  pirated  edition,  was  out  of  pocket  by 
the  venture.  At  the  same  time  the  reputation  of 
the  young  writer  was  made,  and  even  his  financial 
value  had  become  so  enhanced  that  an  enter- 
prising bookseller  offered  him  very  good  terms 
for  "a  dozen  similar  plays."  Nor  was  the  sin- 
cerest  of  all  compliments  wanting,  for  imitations 
sprang  up  on  every  hand,  and  for  a  time  Germany 
was  inundated  with  romances,  which  betrayed 
more  or  less  openly  their  descent  from  Gotz. 

With  its  appearance  Goethe  became  at  one 
stroke  the  recognised  leader  of  the  literary  move- 
ment which  comprised  most  of  the  young  writers 
of  the  day,  and  which  was  known  as  the  "  Storm 
and  Stress,"  from  a  drama  of  Klinger,  himself  one 
of  the  Stunner  und  Dranger. 

That  movement  was  one  of  liberty  and  in- 
dividuality, both  in  thought  and  expression,  and 
just  as  it  claimed  freedom  from  the  literary  con- 
ventions and  free  play  for  the  personality  of  the 
writer,  so  it  asserted  for  the  citizen  the  rights 
and  duties  of  individuality  against  the  cramping 
traditions  of  an  outlived  past. 

This  double  current  of  the  movement  found  a 
striking  presentment  in  the  play,  for  all  literary 
conventions,  including  the  hoary  tradition  of  the 
unities,  were  thrown  to  the  winds,  while  in  the 
robber  -  knight  of  the  sixteenth  century,  who 
sacrificed  his  life  in  a  single-handed  fight  against 


STORM  AND  STRESS  91 

the  overwhelming  odds  of  injustice  and  corruption, 
the  Sturmer  und  Dniriger  saw  their  ideals  and 
aspirations  set  forth  in  a  way  that  made  them  at 
once  recognise  in  this  still  nameless  author  their 
natural  captain. 

As  for  Herder,  he  saw,  to  his  surprise,  this 
work,  of  the  imperfections  of  which  he  had  been 
so  sure,  raise  its  anonymous  author  to  the  position 
of  literary  leader  of  his  day. 

All  this  time  Werther  had  been  slowly  maturing. 
We  have  seen  what  were  the  actual  circumstances 
of  Goethe's  stay  in  Wetzlar ;  we  have  observed 
with  what  particular  attention  he  ascertained  all 
the  facts  of  the  sad  end  of  young  Jerusalem,  and 
these  elements  we  find  in  the  famous  work  which 
joined  with  Gotz  to  make  him  the  foremost  man 
of  letters  in  Germany,  and  at  the  same  time  repre- 
sented another  phase  of  Sturm  und  Drang — the 
vague,  unsatisfied  longings,  the  dark,  unfathom- 
able passions  and  emotions,  and  the  weariness  of 
life,  the  Weltachmerz,  from  which  the  cultured 
world  was  then  in  reality  or  imagination  suffering. 

Die  Leiden  des  jungen  Werthers  appeared  in 
1774,  and  at  once  spread  over  the  whole  country. 
It  was  soon  translated  into  every  language  of 
Europe,  and  everywhere  criticised  and  reviewed, 
praised  and  blamed,  with  passionate  zeal.  A 
whole  crop  of  imitations  sprang  up,  and  the 
a  Wertherfieber  "  by  which  it  was  followed  showed 


92  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

on  what  ready  soil  the  seed  had  fallen.  This  was, 
indeed,  the  secret  of  its  success,  that  Goethe  had 
expressed  what  everyone  was  feeling  ;  but  while 
it  aroused  in  others  a  still  greater  fury  of  morbid 
sentimentality,  to  him  it  had  brought  only  relief 
from  the  unhealthy  feelings  which,  once  expressed, 
he  had  done  with  for  ever. 

The  flood  of  sentimental  literature  and  the 
morbid  sensibility  for  which  the  book  was  respon- 
sible became,  in  fact,  somewhat  of  a  trial  to  its 
author,  and  he  tried  to  check  the  harmful  ten- 
dency by  a  satirical  work  entitled  the  Triumph 
der  Empfindsamkeit  (1781).  Of  the  way  in  which 
the  harmful  effects  of  the  book  were  brought  to 
his  own  notice  we  shall  later  on  have  to  chronicle 
an  instance. 

One  of  the  two  first  copies  of  Werther  was  sent 
to  Lotte,  and,  strangely  enough,  it  does  not  seem 
to  have  ever  occurred  to  Goethe  that  she  or  her 
husband  might  object  to  the  uncalled-for  publicity 
thus  given  to  their  affairs  under  so  very  thin  a 
disguise,  and  which  Kestner,  at  any  rate,  not 
unnaturally  resented.  The  letter  which  was  sent 
with  the  book  to  Lotte,  who  was  now  a  happy 
mother,  is  a  good  instance  of  the  artificial  senti- 
mentality of  the  time,  in  which  real  passion 
and  feeling  were  replaced  by  their  intellectual 
shadows : 

"  Lotte,  how  dear  this  little  book  is  to  me  thou 


STORM  AND  STRESS  93 

wilt  feel  in  reading  it,  and  this  copy  is  as  dear  to 
me  as  if  it  were  the  only  one  in  the  world.  Thou 
must  have  it,  Lotte  ;  I  have  kissed  it  a  hundred 
times,  have  kept  it  locked  up,  that  no  one  might 
touch  it.  Oh,  Lotte,  I  wish  each  to  read  it  alone 
— thou  alone,  Kestner  alone — and  each  to  write 
me  a  word  about  it.  Lotte,  Lotte,  adieu  !" 

In  spite  of  the  coolness  which  followed  the 
publication  of  Werther,  Kestner  and  Goethe  con- 
tinued to  correspond  till  the  end  of  the  century, 
while  Goethe  saw  Lotte  years  after,  in  1816,  in 
Weimar,  when  he  found  her  palsied  but  still 
beautiful. 

Such  were  the  two  works  which  made  Goethe 
not  only  a  famous  writer,  but  a  force  in  the  land  ; 
for  in  them  he  had  shown  that  he  was  at  the 
heart  of  the  thought  of  his  age,  and  had  made 
himself  a  living  exponent  of  the  minds  of  his 
contemporaries. 

These  Frankfort  years  from  1772  to  1775  were  a 
time  of  almost  feverishly  active  production,  in 
which,  besides  the  greater  and  lesser  works  which 
were  actually  completed,  seeds  were  sown  which 
were  to  bear  fruit  in  later  years. 

At  the  same  time  he  was  engaged  as  an  advo- 
cate, working  with  the  help  of  his  father,  with 
whom  he  now  appears  to  have  lived  on  better 
terms,  though  all  true  sympathy  between  them 
was  impossible.  He  was  a  journalist,  too,  and  his 


94  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

writings  on  professional  subjects  and  the  articles 
in  the  Frankfurter  Gelehrte  Anzeigen  show  the 
characteristics  of  his  style  and  genius. 

A  witty  little  work  written  at  this  time  was  Goiter 
Helden  und  Wieland,  a  satiric  dialogue  written  in 
the  style  of  Lucian  and  directed  against  Wieland, 
in  which  ancient  gods  and  heroes  appear  to 
Wieland,  and  reproach  him  for  representing  them 
to  the  world  in  such  a  modern  sentimental  fashion, 
and  robbing  them  of  their  ancient  vigour  and 
greatness.  Wieland's  answer  was  to  recommend 
the  persiflage  to  the  attention  of  his  readers  in  his 
paper,  the  Teutsche  Merkur. 

Soon  after  the  completion  of  Werther  was 
written  Clavigo,  a  play  founded  on  the  memoirs 
of  Beaumarchais,  whose  trial  ended  on  Feb- 
ruary 16,  1774.  It  is  the  story  of  an  ambitious 
man  of  letters,  who,  on  achieving  brilliant  success, 
abandons  the  woman  to  whom  he  is  engaged  and 
breaks  her  heart,  and  is  characteristically  com- 
pounded of  fact  and  of  Goethe's  own  imagina- 
tion. 

The  play  was  written  in  eight  days,  and  the 
story  of  its  composition  is  recounted  at  length  by 
Goethe  in  his  Autobiography.  It  was  very  suc- 
cessful, and  is  still  acted  to-day,  though  it  is  of 
little  real  merit.  Merck's  comment  was :  "  You 
must  not  write  such  rubbish  any  more  ;  others 
can  do  that  as  well."  It  is  interesting  to  note 


STORM  AND  STRESS  95 

that  it  was  the  first  work  published  under  his  own 
name. 

Of  the  works  of  this  period  which  were  begun 
and  not  finished,  the  most  important  is  Mahomet, 
which  was  to  have  been  a  drama  in  five  acts,  and 
of  the  intended  scope  of  which  Goethe  has  him- 
self given  us  a  lengthy  account,  for  it  was  at  the 
time  a  subject  very  near  to  his  heart,  and  one  of 
which  he  hoped  much. 

Finally,  some  scenes  of  Faust  were  written  in 
this  time  of  Storm  and  Stress,  the  interest  in 
the  Faust  of  the  pre-Weimar  days  centring  in 
the  Gretchen  incident,  with  reminiscences  of 
Leipsic  student  days.  The  first  idea  of  the  work 
came  to  him,  as  he  tells  us,  in  1769,  and  probably 
some  prose  scenes  were  written  in  1772,  the 
earliest  in  verse  dating  from  the  following  year. 
A  copy  of  the  Faust  which  he  took  with  him  to 
Weimar,  made  from  Goethe's  manuscript  by  one 
of  the  Court  ladies,  Fraulein  von  Gochhausen,  was 
discovered  in  1887,  and  consists  of  some  twenty 
scenes  of  prose  and  verse,  and  such  it  remained 
for  more  than  a  decade  after  the  migration  to 
Weimar. 

Meantime  he  had  been  drawn  more  and  more 
into  the  social  life  of  Frankfort.  The  close  sym- 
pathy with  his  sister  Cornelia  continued  un- 
impaired until  the  November  of  1773,  when  she 
was  married  to  Schlosser,  and  left  Frankfort  for  a 


96  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

brief  and  unhappy  married  life,  which  ended  with 
her  early  death  in  1777. 

Goethe's  fame  brought  him  new  friends,  and  he 
knew  more  or  less  intimately  several  of  the 
famous  men  of  the  day.  In  the  summer  of  1774 
he  made  a  journey  to  the  Rhine  with  the  famous 
educationist,  Basedow,  and  Lavater,  the  physiog- 
nomist, and  very  amusing  is  the  description  he 
gives  in  a  poem  of  himself  as  the  worldling  of  this 
austere  company.  At  Elberfeld  Goethe  saw  his 
old  Strasburg  friend  Jung  Stilling,  and  at  Diissel- 
dorf  he  met  the  Jacobis. 

On  his  return  to  Frankfort  in  the  autumn,  he 
received  in  his  father's  house  a  visit  from  Klop- 
stock  (then  a  man  of  fifty),  the  acknowledged 
head  of  the  German  Parnassus ;  and  the  famous 
author  of  the  Messias,  and  the  young  genius  of 
half  his  age  met  and  parted  with  much  mutual 
appreciation,  which,  unfortunately,  was  doomed  to 
be  but  very  short-lived. 

On  December  11  of  the  same  year  he  made  a 
still  more  important  acquaintance,  and  one  which 
was  the  first  indication  of  the  approaching  crisis 
in  his  life.  This  was  Karl  Ludwig  von  Knebel, 
who,  with  the  young  Duke  Karl  August  of 
Weimar,  then  in  his  eighteenth  year,  his  younger 
brother  Constantine,  and  their  tutor,  was  passing 
through  Frankfort  on  the  way  to  France.  Knebel 
introduced  him  the  same  evening  to  the  Duke, 


STORM  AND  STRESS  97 

and  a  mutual  attraction  seems  at  once  to  have 
been  felt  between  them,  while  Knebel  himself 
thought  Goethe  the  best  of  men.  The  con- 
versation turned  on  Moser's  Patriotische  Phan- 
tasien,  and  in  the  discussion  of  that  work  Goethe 
displayed  a  deep  insight  into  the  question  of  the 
welfare  of  the  people.  The  Duke  invited  him  to 
visit  them  at  Mainz,  where  they  were  making  a 
longer  stay,  and  thither  he  proceeded  with  Knebel 
on  the  13th,  and  stayed  with  the  ducal  party  till 
the  15th,  the  mutual  esteem  of  Goethe  and  the 
Duke  being  only  strengthened  and  confirmed  by 
longer  acquaintanceship. 

On  his  return  to  Frankfort  Goethe  found,  to  his 
great  grief,  that  his  old  friend  Friiulein  von 
Klettenberg  had  died  on  the  day  of  his  departure, 
and  was  already  buried.  "  Dead  and  buried  in 
my  absence,  she  who  was  so  dear,  so  much  to 
me,"  he  writes  to  Frau  von  Laroche,  and  there  is 
no  doubt  that  he  felt  very  keenly  the  loss  of  this 
quiet,  pietistic  woman,  whose  character  was  in  so 
many  ways  in  such  striking  contrast  to  his  own. 

So  the  year  1775  drew  on,  the  richest,  perhaps, 
in  outward  change  and  incident  of  Goethe's 
eventful  life.  Little  did  he  imagine  when  that 
year  dawned  that  before  its  close  he  would  have 
been  an  accepted  and  engaged  lover,  and  would 
have  left  his  native  city,  never,  as  it  turned  out, 
to  return  other  than  as  a  visitor. 
7 


98  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

On  the  last  night  of  the  old  year,  1774,  Goethe 
was  introduced  by  a  friend  to  the  house  of  Fran 
Schb'nemann,  the  widow  of  a  wealthy  banker, 
which  had  become  the  centre  of  some  of  the  most 
brilliant  gatherings  in  Frankfort.  Her  only 
daughter  was  Anna  Elizabeth,  known  as  Lili,  then 
in  her  seventeenth  year,  a  fair-haired  girl  with 
dark-blue  eyes,  who  at  once  attracted  Goethe, 
both  by  her  winning  presence  and  her  culture  and 
many  accomplishments.  Intellectual  sympathy 
and  mutual  confidences  soon  ripened  this  attach- 
ment into  love,  and  for  a  time  we  find  the  uncon- 
ventional poet,  who  was  fond  of  calling  himself 
"  the  bear,"  thoroughly  tamed  and  performing  the 
social  round,  dressed  in  a  gold-laced  coat,  like  the 
most  conventional  of  courtiers.  Yet  the  chain 
soon  began  to  grow  irksome ;  he  felt,  as  we  know 
from  his  writings,  that  all  this  was  a  lowering  of 
his  ideals,  and  he  began  to  bear  with  an  ever 
worse  grace  Lili's  coquettish  exactions.  He  felt 
that  he  was  losing  his  real  self  in  this  artificial 
world  ;  some  words  of  his  a  year  later  to  Lavater 
are  significant :  "  As  soon  as  one  is  in  society,  one 
takes  the  key  from  one's  heart  and  puts  it  in  one's 
pocket :  those  who  leave  it  in  are  the  fools." 

However,  in  spite  of  the  unsuitability  of  the 
match,  the  opposition  of  both  families  was  over- 
come, and  in  April  the  lovers  were  engaged. 
"Thus,"  says  the  moralizing  Goethe  of  the  Auto- 


STORM  AND  STRESS  99 

biography,  "  it  was  a  strange  decree  of  the  guiding 
Power  above  that  in  the  course  of  my  strange 
existence  I  should,  after  all,  know  what  it  is  like 
to  be  an  engaged  lover."  Yet,  for  all  that,  things 
did  not  go  any  better,  and  the  alternate  attraction 
and  repulsion  of  the  new  relationship  kept  Goethe 
in  a  perpetual  conflict  of  emotions.  Add  to  this 
the  incompatibility  of  the  two  families  and  his 
sister's  active  disapproval,  and  we  can  hardly 
wonder  if  Goethe  felt  that  such  a  state  of  things 
could  not  continue.  He  resolved  to  try  his  old 
remedy  of  flight,  and  seized  the  opportunity  of 
accompanying  the  two  Counts  Stolberg  to  Switzer- 
land to  turn  his  back  for  a  time  on  a  state  of 
things  which  was  growing  unbearable.  With 
these  two  wild  young  Stiirmer  und  Dranger  he 
threw  himself,  from  the  reaction,  all  the  more 
gladly  into  the  spirit  of  a  careless,  madcap  holiday. 
Yet,  though  he  had  fled  from  Lili,  he  could  not 
free  himself  from  the  thought  of  her ;  the  fairest 
prospects  and  the  wildest  pleasures  could  not 
distract  his  thoughts,  and  from  within  sight  of 
Italy,  his  promised  land,  he  returned  to  Frankfort, 
arriving  there  in  July.  For  a  time  his  passion 
flamed  up  again  more  brightly  than  ever,  and 
August  was  a  halcyon  time,  spent  with  Lili  at 
Offenbach.  But  the  old  strain  soon  made  itself 
felt  again,  jealousy  was  added  to  his  other  troubles, 
and  considering  that  riot  only  on  his,  but  on  her 
7—2 


ioo  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

side  too,  all  influence  was  being  brought  to  bear 
to  show  the  inadvisability  of  their  marriage,  it  is 
little  wonder  that  in  September  the  final  separa- 
tion came.  To  Goethe's  love  for  Lili  we  owe 
some  of  his  most  beautiful  lyrics,  and  among  other 
minor  works  the  vaudeville  Ertvin  und  Elmire. 

Under  these  circumstances,  nothing  could  have 
been  more  welcome  than  an  invitation  he  received 
to  pay  a  visit  to  the  Weimar  Court.  The  Duke 
passed  through  Frankfort,  both  on  his  way  to 
Darmstadt  to  celebrate  his  marriage  with  the 
Princess  Louise,  and  on  his  return  journey.  It 
was  arranged  that  one  of  the  Duke's  carriages 
should  call  for  Goethe  and  take  him  to  Weimar, 
and  Goethe  made  all  preparations  for  departure  ; 
but  day  after  day  went  by,  and  no  carriage  came. 
His  father,  the  old  Councillor,  who  was  imbued 
with  the  sturdy,  independent  spirit  of  a  burgher 
of  the  old  imperial  city,  had  never  liked  this  new 
friendship  with  the  aristocrats,  remembering  the 
recent  case  of  Voltaire  and  his  imperial  patron, 
and  now  thought  he  saw  his  worst  anticipations 
fulfilled. 

Having  bidden  all  his  friends  farewell  and  ex- 
plained his  projected  visit,  Goethe  could  not  well 
go  among  them  again,  and  he  lived  during  these 
days  of  anxious  waiting  in  a  far  from  enviable 
frame  of  mind,  passing  the  time  by  working  at 
Egmont,  which  he  nearly  completed  in  its  first 


STORM  AND  STRESS  101 

form,  and  read  to  his  father,  who  took  a  particular 
interest  in  the  work.  He  only  ventured  out  at 
night,  to  roam  the  well-known  streets.  Nor  was 
Lili  forgotten,  in  spite  of  the  separation,  and  very 
interesting  is  the  account  he  himself  gives  us  of 
one  of  these  nightly  rambles. 

"  Wrapped  in  a  big  cloak,  1  stole  about  in  the 
town,  past  the  houses  of  my  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances, and  did  not  fail  to  go  to  Lili's  window. 
She  lived  in  the  ground-floor  of  a  corner  house  ; 
the  green  blinds  were  let  down,  but  I  could 
plainly  see  that  the  lights  stood  in  the  accus- 
tomed place.  Soon  I  heard  her  singing  at  the 
piano ;  it  was  the  song :  Ach,  wie  ziehst  du  mich 
unwiderstehlich  !*  which  had  been  written  for  her 
not  quite  a  year  before.  I  could  not  help  think- 
ing that  she  sang  it  with  more  expression  than 
ever  ;  I  could  understand  every  word.  I  held  my 
ear  as  close  as  the  outward-bent  window-grating 
allowed,  and  when  she  had  finished  I  saw  by  the 
shadow,  which  fell  on  the  blinds,  that  she  had 
risen  ;  she  walked  to  and  fro,  but  I  sought  in  vain 
to  catch  the  outline  of  her  dear  form  between  the 
close  bars.  Only  the  fixed  determination  to  go 
away,  not  to  trouble  her  by  my  presence,  but 
really  to  relinquish  her,  and  the  thought  what  a 
strange  sensation  my  reappearance  would  cause, 

*  Dichtung  undWahrheit,  Book  XVII.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxix.,  p.  40. 


102  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

gave  me  the  resolution  to  leave  so  dear  a  pre- 
sence."* 

At  last  he  could  endure  the  delay  no  longer, 
and  on  October  30  gave  way  to  his  father's  wishes, 
and  set  out  for  Italy,  decided,  however,  to  stay  a 
few  days  in  Heidelberg  in  the  hopes  that  he 
might  yet  meet  the  carriage  there.  Thence  he 
was  summoned  back  by  a  messenger  to  Frankfort, 
where  he  found  the  long-expected  carriage  wait- 
ing, and  drove  in  the  company  of  the  Chamberlain, 
Von  Kalb,  to  Weimar,  arriving  there  in  the  early 
morning  of  November  7. 

So  ends  the  first  big  chapter  of  Goethe's  life, 
for  the  visit  to  the  Weimar  Court  was  destined  to 
last,  with  few  and  brief  interruptions,  for  more 
than  half  a  century.  With  it  ends,  too,  his  famous 
Autobiogi-aphy,  and  the  passage  from  Egmont 
which  forms  its  conclusion,  while  having  a  peculiar 
fitness  as  there  applied  to  the  journey  from  the 
one  life  to  the  other,  receives  from  its  position  a 
still  wider  significance. 

All  attempts  to  dissuade  him  from  the  journey 
are  of  no  avail,  and  at  last,  impatient  of  delay, 
he  cries  :  "  Child,  child,  have  done  !  As  though 
lashed  by  invisible  spirits,  the  sun-horses  of  Time 
bolt  with  the  light  vehicle  of  our  fate,  and  nothing 
remains  for  us  but  in  brave  composure  to  grasp 

*  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  XX.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxix.,  p.  184. 


STORM  AND  STRESS  103 

the  reins  tightly,  and,  now  left,  now  right,  to  keep 
the  wheels  clear  of  stock  and  stone.  Whither  we 
go,  who  knows  ?  Hardly  does  one  remember 
whence  he  came."* 

*  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  XX.,  Weimar  edition, 
vol.  xxix.,  p.  192. 


CHAPTER  VII 

YEARS     OF     SERVICE 

WEIMAR,  the  capital  and  residence  of  the 
Grand-Duchy  of  Saxony,  is  to-day  a 
bright  little  city,  where  the  old  and  the  new 
jostle  one  another  in  a  way  that  is  character- 
istic of  the  prosperous,  progressive  Germany  of 
the  Empire.  It  would  be  a  charming  little  town 
even  without  the  many  and  universal  reminders 
of  its  golden  age.  By  the  side  of  old  buildings 
and  old  quarters  speaking  of  a  distant  past  we 
have  fine  public  buildings,  carefully  -  laid  -  out 
squares,  and  all  the  scientific  apparatus  that  is 
the  outward  and  visible  sign  of  twentieth-century 
civilization.  Add  to  this  the  pretty  little  river, 
the  Ilm,  the  handsome  grand-ducal  palace  and 
many  other  stately  buildings,  the  beautiful  sur- 
roundings, Belvedere,  Tiefurt,  Ettersburg,  and, 
further  away,  Jena  and  Eisenach,  with  the 
Thiiringer  Wald,  and  last,  but  not  least,  the  more 
than  ordinarily  beautiful  park,  the  English  ap- 
pearance of  which  is  more  than  fortuitous,  and 
104 


YEARS  OF  SERVICE  105 

over  all  cast  the  romantic  charm  of  an  illustrious 
past  and  the  shadow  of  more  than  one  great  name, 
and  it  is  little  wonder  that  Weimar  has  for  the 
pilgrim  of  to-day  a  fascination  hard  to  parallel. 

Memories  and  associations  crowd  upon  us  on 
every  side,  imagination  is  constantly  busy  with 
the  reconstruction  of  the  past — whether  we  stand, 
for  instance,  on  the  veranda  of  the  Borken- 
h'duscheii  and  imagine  we  are  Karl  August,  and 
Goethe  is  making  a  sign  to  us  from  his  Garten- 
haus  (imagination  is  doubly  necessary  here,  as  the 
two  are  now  hidden  from  one  another  by  the 
luxuriant  growth  of  trees),  or,  leaning  on  a  bridge 
over  the  Ilm,  recall  the  story  of  Goethe's  bathing 
there  in  the  moonlight  and  being  taken  by  the 
terrified  peasant  for  something  uncanny. 

If  we  turn  across  one  of  the  bridges  and  make 
our  way  to  the  Gartenhaus  itself,  we  pass  in 
through  the  little  garden  to  the  rooms  in  which 
Goethe  passed  a  considerable  part  of  his  life,  and 
can  stand  beside  the  simple  table  at  which  he 
wrote,  and  the  luxurious  desk  which  he,  character- 
istically, did  not  favour.  We  can  see  still  in  his 
bedroom  his  convertible  bed  and  travelling-trunk, 
and  the  two-handled  straw  bag,  like  that  of  an 
English  carpenter,  in  which  he  used  to  collect  his 
geological  specimens,  or  pack  up  a  simple  meal 
with  a  bottle  or  two  of  wine  for  some  little  outing 
such  as  Eckermann  describes.  Or  we  can  walk 


io6  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

in  the  garden  behind,  with  its  paths  winding 
among  the  trees  on  the  steep  hillside,  and  stand 
on  Goethe's  favourite  spot  and  see  the  stone  with 
its  inscription  to  her  who  was  the  inspiration  of 
his  early  Weimar  years.  It  all  makes  Goethe 
seem  very  near  and  very  real.  Past  and  present, 
reality  and  romance,  are  strangely  interwoven, 
and  as  we  gaze  on  the  signs  of  material  well- 
being,  and  see  how  the  forces  of  Nature  have 
been  tamed  and  put  to  the  service  of  man,  we 
cannot  but  reflect  that  the  town  in  which  his 
spirit  lives  is  like  a  realization  of  the  dream  of 
Goethe's  maturest  years — to  see  poetry  joining 
hands  with  marching  civilization,  and  finding 
the  highest  ideal  in  lofty  unselfish  labour  for  the 
furtherance  of  the  race. 

Far  different  was  the  Weimar  of  a  century  and 
a  quarter  ago.  To-day  it  has  nearly  30,000  in- 
habitants ;  when  Goethe  arrived  there  its  popula- 
tion was  barely  6,000.  The  city  walls  were  still 
standing,  portcullis  and  gates  were  still  intact, 
and  the  keeping  of  the  latter  was  so  little  of  a 
formality  that  no  one  could  pass  them  without 
entering  his  name  in  the  sentinel's  book. 

It  was  just  the  quiet,  sleepy  Residenz  of  one  of 
the  smaller  German  States.  There  was  nothing 
in  any  way  exceptional  in  its  past,  and  there 
had  been  no  feature  giving  promise  of  anything 
to  break  its  dull  routine  in  the  future,  till  the 


YEARS  OF  SERVICE  107 

arrival  of  one  woman  in  Weimar  changed  the  face 
of  things  and  paved  the  way  indirectly  for  its 
Golden  Age. 

Anna  Amalia,  the  Dowager-Duchess,  then  only 
thirty-six,  was  of  the  House  of  Brunswick,  and 
after  a  brief  married  life  had  been  left  at  nineteen 
a  widow  with  two  sons.  Thrown  thus  early  on 
her  own  resources,  she  developed  a  great  indepen- 
dence of  character,  and  impressed  her  stamp  upon 
the  life  of  Weimar  in  a  way  that  was  destined  to 
bear  lasting  fruits.  As  tutor  of  her  eldest  son  she 
chose  the  poet  Wieland,  and  thus  brought  to 
Weimar  in  1772  the  first  of  the  line  of  poets  who 
were  to  make  of  the  Ilm-Athen  the  capital  of 
German  letters. 

Afterwards  literature  became  strong  and  more 
independent  of  her  fostering  care,  but  it  was  she 
that  sowed  the  seed  from  which  the  glorious 
harvest  came.  Intellectual  without  pedantry, 
with  a  light-hearted  joy  in  life  like  that  of 
Goethe's  own  mother,  she  deserved  the  descrip- 
tion the  latter,  her  "  Liebste  Frau  Aja,"  gave  of 
her :  "  A  princess  who,  all  in  all,  was  really  a 
princess,  who  has  shown  the  world  that  she  can 
rule,  who  possesses  the  great  art  of  winning  all 
hearts,  who,  in  a  word,  was  born  to  be  a  bless- 
ing to  mankind."  The  Duke  Karl  August  was 
then  a  youth  of  eighteen,  sound  in  heart  and  will, 
simple  and  straightforward,  rather  sensuous  than 


io8  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

intellectual,  possessed  more  of  the  gifts  of  the 
heart  and  character  than  of  the  head  ;  yet  he  had 
the  welfare  of  his  State  even  then  before  his  eyes, 
and  seems,  though  still  a  boy,  to  have  possessed 
already  one  of  the  characteristics  of  a  born  ruler 
— the  power  of  recognising  a  man  when  he  saw 
one.  Already  in  the  previous  year  at  Frankfort 
Goethe's  gifts  and  enthusiasm  had  made  a  deep 
impression  on  him,  and  he  never  wavered  in  his 
allegiance  to  the  greatness  which  he  instinctively 
felt  in  him. 

He  married  on  October  3,  1775,  Louise,  the 
youngest  of  the  eight  children  of  that  Landgravine 
Caroline  of  Darmstadt  who  had  formed  there  the 
literary  circle  which  was  already  well  known  to 
Goethe  through  Merck.  Of  a  retiring  and  some- 
what formal  disposition,  she  did  not  take  a  leading 
part  in  the  intellectual  life  of  these  early  Weimar 
years,  partly,  perhaps,  overshadowed  by  the  more 
commanding  figure  of  Anna  Amalia,  partly  because 
she  regarded  at  first  with  little  favour  her  hus- 
band's relations  with  his  poet  friend,  and  the 
unconventional  life  for  which  the  Court  of  Weimar 
became  famous. 

The  younger  brother  of  the  Duke,  Prince  Con- 
stantine,  played  no  very  prominent  part  in  the 
Weimar  life.  His  tutor  was  the  Major  Karl 
Ludwig  von  Knebel  who  had  introduced  Goethe 
to  the  Duke  in  Frankfort,  a  constant  friend  of 


GOETHE   AGED   TWENTY-NINE 


YEARS  OF  SERVICE  109 

Goethe's,  and  himself  a  writer  and  translator, 
whose  renderings  of  Lucretius  and  Propertius 
possessed  considerable  merit. 

Under  such  conditions  Goethe  arrived  in  Weimar 
on  November  7  on  a  visit  to  the  Duke.  The  very 
first  day  a  reception  was  given  in  honour  of  the 
famous  poet  who  had  just  taken  the  world  by 
storm.  There  it  was  that  Wieland,  then  in  the 
early  forties,  met  him,  and  was  at  once  carried 
away  by  the  magnetism  of  his  personality.  "  My 
soul  is  as  full  of  Goethe  as  a  dewdrop  of  the 
morning  sun,"  he  said  ;  and  in  a  poem  of  the  next 
year  he  speaks  of  the  effect  this  "  magician,"  this 
"  handsome  wizard  with  his  black  and  witching 
eyes,"  produced  in  their  midst.  There  is  a 
beautiful  absence  of  anything  akin  to  envy  in 
this,  coming  as  it  did  from  the  man  who  was  then 
the  leader  of  the  literary  society  of  Weimar,  and 
of  resentment  on  the  part  of  the  man  whose 
treatment  of  the  antique  Goethe  had  only  the 
year  before  held  up  to  ridicule. 

Goethe  was  then  just  over  six-and-twenty,  and 
splendid  in  a  seldom  rivalled  combination  of 
physical  and  mental  endowments.  "  A  mag- 
nificent youth,"  Wieland  calls  him,  while  Knebel 
tells  how  he  rose  like  a  star  in  the  heavens,  and 
all,  especially  the  women,  worshipped  him.  He 
seems,  [in  fact,  for  a  time  to  have  completely 
turned  the  heads  of  the  Court  circle,  and  the 


no  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

author  of  Werther  became  the  centre  of  a  round 
of  revelries  and  sentimental  excesses  which  sought 
to  realize  the  Schwdrmerei  of  that  famous  book. 
The  men  all  donned  the  Werther  uniform — top- 
boots,  blue  coat,  yellow  waistcoat,  three-cornered 
hat,  and  all ;  the  ladies,  too,  shared  in  the  suc- 
cession of  dances,  masquerades,  skating-parties, 
and  merry  jaunts,  with  which  the  gay  round  was 
kept  up. 

Goethe  and  the  Duke  almost  lived  together. 
Goethe  slept  in  the  Duke's  own  chamber  ;  they 
bathed  together,  dined  together,  and  made  them- 
selves at  times  ridiculous  together.  The  Duke 
addressed  Goethe  by  the  familiar  du. 

Reports  spread  about  the  land  of  the  mad 
doings  at  Weimar,  and  naturally  lost  none  of  their 
colour  on  the  way,  till  of  the  wild,  unconventional, 
somewhat  self-conscious  and  posing,  but  on  the 
whole  quite  harmless,  doings  of  a  party  of  high- 
spirited  young  people  there  grew  orgies  of  a 
somewhat  vague  but  scandalizing  nature.  Solemn 
friends  who  knew  no  such  riot  of  the  blood  held 
it  their  duty  to  be  shocked.  Klopstock  wrote  him 
an  epistolary  sermon,  in  which  he  tried  to  make 
him  responsible  for  the  Duke's  alleged  intem- 
perate habits  and  neglect  of  his  wife.  Goethe 
answered,  "  Spare  us  in  future  such  letters,  dear 
Klopstock,"  without  taking  the  trouble  to  refute 
the  charge,  merely  remarking  that  he  might  be 


YEARS  OF  SERVICE  in 

found  no  worse,  and  perhaps  even  better,  than 
formerly.  To  which  (the  fulminating  bard  replied 
by  excommunicating  the  unrepentant  and  in- 
sufficiently adoring  young  sinner. 

All  this  time,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind, 
Goethe  was  the  guest  of  the  Duke,  and  not  the 
Weimar  resident  and  official  he  later  became,  and 
in  this  fact  extenuation  could,  if  needed,  be  found 
for  the  excesses  of  these  first  months  and  for 
his  share  of  the  responsibility  for  them. 

When  with  the  spring  of  1776  the  time  came 
to  decide  on  leaving  or  staying,  he  had  become 
indispensable  to  the  Duke,  who  could  "  no  longer 
swim  nor  wade  without  him,"  and  when  he  made 
one  of  his  characteristic  attempts  to  solve  the 
difficulty  by  flight,  the  Duke  prevailed  on  him  to 
return,  and  conferred  on  him  the  Gartenhaits,  and 
appointed  him  Geheimer  Legationsrat,  with  seat 
and  voice  in  the  Privy  Council  and  a  salary  of 
1,200  thalers  a  year.  To  the  poet's  father,  who 
was  anything  but  pleased  at  the  loss  of  his  son, 
and  thought  gloomily  of  Frederick  the  Great  and 
Voltaire,  and  the  inconstancy  of  princes  in  general, 
Karl  August  wrote  :  "  Goethe  can  have  only  one 
position,  that  of  my  friend  ;  all  others  are  beneath 
him." 

Thus  Goethe  entered  into  the  service  of  the 
Weimar  State,  in  which  he  later  became  respon- 
sible for  finance,  the  war  commission,  and  the 


ii2  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

administration  of  roads,  mines,  and  forests.  In 
1779  he  was  made  Geheimrat.  In  1782  he  was 
ennobled  by  the  Emperor  Joseph  II.,  taking  as 
his  arms  a  silver  star  on  an  azure  field,  while  in 
the  same  year  he  received  the  presidency  of  the 
Chamber,  thus  becoming  First  Minister  and  the 
highest  official  in  the  duchy. 

With  a  permanent  position  and  duties  came  a 
due  feeling  of  his  responsibilities,  and  the  only 
refutation  needed  of  the  calumnies  that,  even  after 
the  first  wild  months,  continued  to  be  heaped  upon 
him  is  an  impartial  investigation  of  the  way  in 
which  he  discharged  his  important  functions,  and 
the  spirit  in  which  he  regarded  his  task.  Of  that 
spirit  we  have  an  eloquent  expression  in  the  noble 
poem  Ilmenau,  written,  in  celebration  of  the  Duke's 
birthday,  on  September  3,  1783,  in  which  Goethe 
recalls  the  follies  and  errors  of  Karl  August's 
youth  and  his  own,  and  of  which  the  frankness 
of  speech  and  exhortation  does  equal  honour  to 
poet  and  prince. 

One  of  Goethe's  first  acts  as  a  resident  and 
Councillor  of  Weimar  was  to  obtain,  not  without 
considerable  difficulty,  the  appointment  of  his  old 
critic  Herder  as  Court  Preacher  and  General 
Superintendent  of  the  Consistory  of  Weimar. 
There  was  much  opposition  to  be  overcome  on  the 
part  of  the  orthodox,  whose  bitter  antagonism 
Herder  had  aroused,  and  Goethe  exposed  himself 


YEARS  OF  SERVICE  113 

to  no  little  unpopularity  in  championing  his  cause. 
Herder  was  appointed,  and  settled  permanently 
in  Weimar,  thus  adding  another  famous  name  to 
the  brilliant  roll  of  Weimar's  poets,  which  was 
not  to  be  completed  by  the  arrival  of  Schiller  till 
1799- 

In  this,  as  in  all  similar  circumstances,  Goethe 
showed  himself  a  staunch  friend,  though  neither 
now,  nor  for  the  help  he  later  constantly  gave  to 
Herder  and  his  family,  did  he  receive  any  grati- 
tude, but  rather,  as  it  seems,  only  resentment  for 
the  benefits  he  left  unconferred.  Herder's  nature 
was  little  like  that  of  Wieland,  and  the  latter's 
generous  recognition  of  superior  powers  was  for 
him  impossible. 

As  yet  no  mention  has  been  made  of  one  of  the 
most  potent  factors  in  Goethe's  life  and  develop- 
ment at  this  time.  Feminine  influence  played 
throughout  an  important  part  in  his  moral  and 
intellectual  life,  and  of  no  epoch  is  this  more  true 
than  of  the  first  ten  years  at  Weimar. 

From  shortly  after  his  arrival  till  his  departure 
for  Italy,  and  in  correspondence  during  his 
absence  there,  he  shared  his  inner  life  with  a 
woman  with  whom  he  stood  on  a  footing  of 
greater  sympathy  and  intellectual  intimacy  than 
was  the  case  in  any  of  his  other  attachments.  Up 
till  now  he  had  felt  the  attraction  only  of  more 
or  less  immature  girls,  whose  knowledge  of  the 


* 

ii4  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

world  was  far  inferior  to  his  own,  and  in  the  rela- 
tionship with  whom  the  romantic  element  was  pre- 
dominant. His  love  for  Kathchen,  for  Friederike, 
for  Lili,  claimed  only  one  part  of  him,  and  was 
even  antagonistic  to  the  harmonious  development 
of  what  he  could  not  but  feel  to  be  the  greater 
and  higher  sides  of  his  nature. 

This  conflict  is  seen  very  clearly  in  his  action  in 
each  case.  Throughout  the  latter  part  of  his 
relations  with  Lili  it  is  very  clearly  expressed,  too, 
in  words. 

This  time  it  was  no  young  girl  whose  beauty 
fettered  his  senses,  but  a  woman  seven  years  his 
senior,  the  mother  of  a  large  family,  who  had 
never  been  physically  beautiful,  but  whose  graces 
of  mind  and  charm  won  Goethe  so  completely 
that  she  kept,  under  the  difficult  conditions,  both 
his  love  and  his  respect,  and,  in  spite  of  stormy 
scenes  caused  by  his  passion  and  impetuosity, 
taught  him  a  difficult  self-restraint  without  foi-feit- 
ing  his  allegiance. 

Charlotte  von  Stein  (1742-1827)  was  the  wife  of 
the  Master  of  the  Horse,  Baron  von  Stein,  a  good 
fellow  of  no  special  abilities,  with  whom  Goethe 
was  on  a  footing  of  cordial  friendship,  in  which, 
however,  there  was  no  intellectual  sympathy. 

Goethe  and  she  corresponded  nearly  every  day, 
and  though  she  received  back  and  burnt  her 
letters  to  him,  we  possess  in  Goethe's  an  incom  - 


FRAU    VON    STEIN 


YEARS  OF  SERVICE  115 

parable  record  both  of  his  love  for  her  and  of  all 
that  occupied  his  time  and  thoughts  during  this 
period.  To  her  he  poured  out  as  in  a  confessional 
all  the  innermost  thoughts  of  his  heart.  His  love 
and  his  work  are  one  and  indivisible;  headdresses 
by  every  endearment  her  who  was  his  "comforter," 
"  the  dearest  dream  of  his  life,"  "  to  be  worthy  of 
whom  was  the  wish  nearest  his  heart,"  "in  whose 
presence  his  spirit  was  bright  and  joyous  as  the 
sun." 

Most  of  the  work  of  the  period  bears  directly 
or  indirectly  the  stamp  of  her  influence.  Both 
Iphigenie,  in  the  play  of  that  name,  and  the 
Princesse  in  Tasso,  have  many  traits  borrowed 
from  her  character,  while  in  many  smaller  pro- 
ductions her  influence  and  inspiration  are  clearly 
traceable. 

Already  in  1775  Goethe  had  seen  a  sil- 
houette of  her,  which  had  cost  him  three  nights' 
sleep.  "  It  would  be  a  glorious  spectacle  to  see 
how  the  world  is  reflected  in  this  soul,"  he  wrote, 
and  this  spectacle  he  enjoyed  in  the  intimate 
friendship  which  now  began. 

When  Goethe  came  to  Weimar  she  was  staying 
on  her  estate  at  Kochberg,  and  even  on  her 
return  to  Weimar  the  intimacy  did  not  im- 
mediately follow,  but  it  was  not  long  before  they 
were  able  to  perceive,  through  all  the  con- 
ventionalities and  formalities  of  Court  life,  the 
8—2 


u6  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

real  sympathy  that  existed  between  them,  and 
how  independent  they  both  were  of  all  such 
limitations. 

The  external  events  of  this  period  can  be  briefly 
recounted.  The  end  of  1777  witnessed  his  journey 
to  the  Harz  Mountains,  which  is  celebrated  in  the 
ode  Harzreise  im  Winter.  It  was  undertaken 
with  the  twofold  object  of  inspecting  the  mining 
operations  in  the  Harz,  with  a  view  to  re-opening 
the  Ilmenau  works,  and  of  visiting  a  young 
hypochondriac  named  Plessing,  for  whose  Wer- 
therian  morbidity  Goethe  felt  partly  responsible. 
He  stood  on  the  summit  of  the  Brocken  at  mid- 
day on  December  10.  The  unfortunate  Plessing 
fully  recovered,  and  many  years  later  was  able,  as 
a  professor  at  Duisburg,  to  entertain  his  benefactor 
on  his  return  from  the  campaign  in  France. 

This  is  one  of  the  many  instances  of  Goethe's 
unobtrusive  philanthropy,  which  forms  the  best 
refutation  of  the  charge  of  cold  impassivity  and 
indifference  to  the  well-being  of  his  fellows  so 
frequently  brought  against  him. 

In  this  same  year  (1777)  he  began  Wilhelm 
Meisters  Lehrjahre,  the  first  part  of  that  woi-k 
which,  like  Faust,  accompanied  him  through  many 
years  of  his  life  and  many  phases  of  his  develop- 
ment, and,  like  it,  obtained  thereby,  together 
with  great  wealth  and  variety,  a  certain  lack  of 
unity. 


YEARS  OF  SERVICE  117 

The  year  1779  was  an  eventful  one  for  Goethe, 
and  in  a  way  a  turning-point  in  his  life,  especially 
in  regard  to  his  relations  to  the  Duke.  In  that 
year  he  undertook,  in  the  company  of  Karl  August, 
his  second  journey  to  Switzerland.  They  passed 
two  days  in  his  old  home  in  Frankfort,  where  they 
found  his  father  somewhat  declining  both  bodily 
and  mentally,  but  his  mother  still  the  same 
vivacious,  merry  "  Frau  Aja,"  whose  bright  spon- 
taneity won  for  her  the  hearts  of  all.  He  passed 
through  Sesenheim,  where  he  found  all  as  he  had 
left  it,  and  his  memory  still  quite  fresh  and 
guarded  without  any  trace  of  bitterness.  He 
visited  with  Friederike  the  old  scenes  of  their 
brief  idyll,  and  her  calm  forgiveness  and  generous 
friendship  were  a  profound  satisfaction  to  him. 

On  the  next  day  he  visited  Lili,  too,  at  Stras- 
burg,  and  found  her  the  proud  and  happy  mother 
of  a  newly-born  child.  From  the  slightly  sarcastic 
way  in  which  he  speaks  of  her  bourgeois  satisfac- 
tion with  the  externals  of  her  lot  it  would  hardly 
appear  as  though  he  felt  then,  what  he  declared 
afterwards,  that  she  was  the  only  one  he  had  truly 
loved.  He  stood  also  at  Emmendingen  by  the 
grave  of  his  sister  Cornelia,  whose  restless  life 
had  thus  early  ended  after  a  brief,  and  not  very 
happy,  marriage  with  his  worthy  but  prosaic 
friend,  Schlosser. 

The    Letters    from    Switzerland   which    he   ad- 


n8  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

dressed  to  Frau  von  Stein  form  one  of  the  most 
intimate  and  attractive  parts  of  their  correspond- 
ence, and  one  of  the  classic  descriptions  of  travel. 
On  the  return  journey  Goethe  was  present  at  a 
distribution  of  prizes  at  the  Karlsschule  in  Stutt- 
gart, when  Schiller,  then  a  youth  of  twenty, 
received  a  prize.  Great  was  the  gulf  fixed  between 
the  two  who  were  later  to  enter  into  so  close  a 
relationship. 

From  Switzerland  both  Goethe  and  Karl  August 
returned  to  Weimar  changed  men.  The  wild  and 
stormy  life  of  the  first  years  was  over ;  now  they 
recognised  the  seriousness  and  importance  of  the 
different  tasks  that  awaited  them.  During  this 
time  together,  away  from  Court  life  and  tradi- 
tional surroundings,  Goethe's  influence  for  good 
seems  to  have  finally  gained  its  hold  upon  the 
Duke's  character.  Goethe  himself,  as  poet  and  as 
man,  had  definitely  left  the  Storm  and  Stress 
behind  him ;  office,  years,  and  the  moderating 
influence  of  a  mature  and  high-minded  woman, 
had  established  the  predominance  of  the  sounder 
and  saner  elements  of  his  nature. 

In  the  year  1779  Iphigcnie  was  written  in  its 
first  form,  and  in  this  prose  setting  was  acted 
before  the  ducal  Court  of  Weimar,  with  Corona 
Schroter  as  Iphigenie,  Prince  Constantine  as 
Pylades,  and  Goethe  himself  as  Orestes.  The 
piece  made  a  great  impression,  and,  above  all, 


YEARS  OF  SERVICE  119 

Goethe  won  the  admiration  of  the  spectators, 
appearing  in  his  union  of  physical  and  intellectual 
perfection  ' '  like  an  Apollo  descended  from  heaven 
to  incorporate  the  beauty  of  Greece."  In  1780 
Tasso  was  begun,  but  soon  laid  aside  again. 

During  this  period  Goethe  devoted  much  of  his 
energy  to  scientific  studies,  for  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  for  many  years  of  his  life  he  valued 
his  reputation  as  a  scientist  quite  as  highly  as  that 
of  a  man  of  letters.  He  began  the  study  of 
anatomy  and  osteology,  and  in  1784  he  made  the 
important  discovery  that  the  intermaxillary  bone 
exists  in  man  in  a  rudimentary  form,  and  thereby 
contributed  to  the  conception  of  the  organic  con- 
nection between  all  forms  of  animal  life.  Rather 
by  intuition  and  imagination  than  by  the  minute 
exactitude  of  his  scientific  investigations,  he  was 
one  of  the  forerunners  in  the  establishment  of  the 
great  theory  of  evolution.  He  discovered  that 
the  skull  is  only  a  development  of  the  vertebrae  of 
the  spine  ;  he  recognised  that  all  the  parts  of  the 
plant,  except  the  root  and  the  stem,  are  modified 
forms  of  the  leaf.  He  also  devoted  much  time  to 
the  study  of  geology,  though  with  less  success, 
while  of  his  investigations  into  the  nature  of  light 
we  shall  speak  later. 

Between  the  Swiss  journey  and  the  departure  for 
Italy  he  wrote  also  several  of  his  most  beautiful  and 
famous  poems — among  others,  liber  alien  Gipfeln 


130  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

ist  Ruh,  Das  Gottliche,  Der  Erlkonig,  Auf  Miediugs 
Tod,  and  the  Zueignung,  which  originally  belonged 
to  the  unfinished  Geheimnisse,  but  now  forms  the 
introduction  to  his  collected  poems.  Thus,  these 
ten  years  had  been  very  full  and  not  unfruitful, 
and  had  contributed  much  to  Goethe's  many- 
sided  development,  and  resulted  in  the  production, 
inception,  or  furtherance  of  many  of  his  greatest 
works. 

Yet,  as  time  went  on,  the  consciousness  strength- 
ened that  the  many  calls  upon  his  time  and 
energies  were  inimical  to  the  full  exercise  of  his 
creative  power.  His  many  unfinished  literary 
projects  called  ever  more  importunately  for  com- 
pletion, while  at  the  same  time  his  relations  to 
Frau  von  Stein  grew  more  and  more  to  a  torture 
which  promised  no  relief,  and  the  whole  finally 
led  him  to  the  resolve  to  flee  to  Italy,  and  so 
satisfy  the  longing  of  his  life. 

On  September  3  he  left  Carlsbad,  which  he  had 
visited  for  the  first  time  in  the  previous  year,  and 
where  he  had  been  staying  since  the  end  of  July, 
the  Duke  and  his  faithful  servant  Seidel  alone 
knowing  of  his  plans,  and  in  the  assumed  character 
of  a  merchant,  and  under  the  name  of  Mtiller,  set 
out  for  the  Promised  Land. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

ITALY 

THE  two  years  of  absence  from  Weimar,  with 
its  monotonous  round  of  official  and  Court 
routine,  and  the  free  and  unfettered  life  in  Italy, 
the  realization  of  his  dreams,  formed  an  epoch 
in  Goethe's  development,  and  influenced  per- 
manently his  conception  of  life  and  of  his  own 
mission. 

At  the  end  of  the  time  he  said,  "  I  have  found 
myself  again  in  this  year  and  a  half  s  retirement, 
but  as  what  ? — as  an  artist,"  meaning  thereby,  not 
that  he  had  recognised  the  exercise  of  plastic  art 
as  his  true  vocation — he  had,  in  fact,  found  his 
limitations  during  this  period — but  that  he  had 
arrived  at  the  conviction  that  in  literary  creation 
lay  his  strength  and  his  life's  work.  He  calls  it 
"  his  new  intellectual  birth,  which  transformed 
him  from  within." 

The  time  in  Italy  was  one  of  great  productivity. 
New  literary  projects  were  formed,  unfinished 
works  were  completed  or  continued,  while  others 
121 


122  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

not  written  at  the  time  owed  their  inspiration 
entirely  to  the  period.  But  before  all  he  entered 
into  the  very  spirit  of  antiquity,  and,  learning  to 
regard  life  through  the  eyes  of  its  "noble  sim- 
plicity and  placid  greatness,"  gained  an  enduring 
equanimity  and  possession  of  soul. 

From  Carlsbad  Goethe  travelled  over  the 
Brenner,  by  Lake  Garda — on  the  shores  of  which, 
feeling  himself  "  at  least  as  lonely  as  his  heroine 
on  the  coast  of  Tauris,"  he  commenced  the  new 
version  of  Ipkigenie — to  Verona,  where  he  saw  the 
great  Roman  amphitheatre,  and  thence  to  Venice. 
A  fortnight  he  spent  in  the  city  of  the  Doges, 
attracted  less  by  its  romantic  charms  and  the 
treasures  of  its  galleries  than  by  the  buildings  of 
Palladio  and  the  bright  Southern  life  and  popula- 
tion. Then  he  pressed  on  to  the  goal  of  his 
pilgrimage,  Rome,  where  he  arrived  at  the  end  of 
October.  The  first  stay  in  Rome  lasted  from 
October  till  February.  Living  as  a  simple  German 
artist,  he  soon  found  himself  in  a  congenial  circle, 
the  most  prominent  members  of  which  were  the 
painters  Tischbein  and  Angelica  Kaufmann,  the 
philologist  Moritz,  and  the  artist  and  art  critic 
Meyer. 

Though  busy  with  the  study  and  practice  of  art, 
the  final  version  of  Iphigenie  proceeded  apace,  the 
recasting  of  the  second  prose  version  into  iambics 
being,  moreover,  no  difficult  matter,  as  the  Ian- 


ITALY  123 

guage  was  so  rhythmical  that  the  division  into 
blank  verse  was  often  little  more  than  mechanical. 
This  final  form  of  Goethe's  Iphigcnic — the  fourth, 
as  the  original  prose  version  had  already  in  1780 
been  cast  into  iambics,  and  then  again  rewritten 
in  a  second  prose  form — shows  Goethe's  classical 
art  at  its  height,  while  the  blank  verse  is  com- 
monly regarded  as  the  purest  the  German  language 
has  to  show. 

Though  Grecian  in  form — of  the  many  surviving 
Greek  plays  on  the  subject,  Goethe  follows  most 
closely  that  of  Euripides — the  spirit  poured  into 
the  Grecian  mould  is  quite  "un-Greek  and 
modern,"  to  use  Schiller's  expression.  Conflict 
and  action  have  become  internal;  the  final  triumph 
is  an  ideal  one,  that  of  truth  and  purity  as  per- 
sonified in  the  highest  type  of  womanhood. 

The  play  thus  deals  rather  with  the  spiritual 
than  the  material  world,  and  what  it  gains  in 
poetic  worth  and  moral  depth  it  loses  in  dramatic 
force,  being,  indeed,  quite  untragic  in  its  absence 
of  external  action.  The  influence  of  Frau  von 
Stein  is  seen  not  only  in  the  delineation  of  Iphi- 
genie  herself,  but  also  in  the  somewhat  incor- 
poreal idealism  of  the  whole. 

It  was  finished  in  January  and  sent  to  the 
Weimar  friends,  but  was  received  at  first  coolly, 
not  finding  that  recognition  which  had  been  given 
to  the  first  prose  version  in  1779-  Only  gradually 


124  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

did  the  depth  and  poetic  value  of  the  work  come 
to  be  duly  appreciated. 

In  February  Goethe  left  Rome  for  Naples,  where 
he  enjoyed  to  the  full  the  unique  beauty  of  the 
natural  position.  He  visited  Pompeii,  and  thrice 
made  the  ascent  of  Vesuvius.  At  Sorrento  he 
worked  at  Tasso,  though  this  dramatic  episode 
from  the  life  of  a  poet,  which  contains  so  much 
that  was  analogous  to  his  own  life,  was  not  com- 
pleted till  1789,  after  the  return  to  Weimar. 

From  Naples  he  sailed  at  the  end  of  March  to 
Sicily,  and  there  amid  surroundings  so  essentially 
Greek  Homer  established  his  empire  over  him, 
and  he  formed  the  plan  of  a  Homeric  tragedy, 
Nausikaa,  founded  on  the  story  of  the  Odyssey, 
which  had  been  awakened  to  fresh  life  during  his 
short  sea-voyage.  We  have  only  a  few  scenes, 
fragments,  and  directions  of  the  projected  play, 
but  they  form  the  most  eloquent  testimony  to  the 
influence  of  Homeric  studies  on  Goethe. 

After  traversing  the  whole  island,  he  departed 
once  more  for  Rome,  where  he  arrived  on  June  6, 
and  stayed  till  April  23.  He  was  now  no  stranger 
there ;  he  settled  down  at  once  to  a  life  full  of 
work  and  enjoyment  in  the  midst  of  congenial 
friends  and  fellow-artists.  He  drew,  he  modelled, 
he  studied  works  of  art  and  the  city  itself,  which 
was  for  him  the  greatest  work  of  art  of  all,  and  at 
the  same  time  literary  productivity  did  not  cease. 


ITALY  125 

Egmont,  the  commencement  of  which  at  the  end 
of  the  Frankfort  time,  under  the  encouragement 
of  his  father,  is  described  in  the  final  pages  of 
Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  and  which  had  been  con- 
tinued and  provisionally  completed  at  Weimar  in 
1782,  was  taken  up  again  and  brought  to  a  con- 
clusion in  September,  1787.  This  drama,  too, 
with  its  story  of  the  loves  of  a  great  man  and  a 
simple  maiden,  contains  aspects  of  Goethe's  own  life. 

Historical  fact  he  treated  very  freely,  though 
the  background  is  on  the  whole  true  in  spirit. 
His  main  source  was  Strada's  famous  Latin  history 
of  the  war  in  the  Netherlands.  The  greatest  of 
all  his  deviations  from  fact  consisted  in  making 
of  the  real  Egmont,  who  was  the  father  of  a 
family,  a  romantic  youth  ;  but  to  this  charge,  when 
brought  against  him  by  Schiller  in  his  severe 
criticism  of  the  play,  Goethe  replied  that  the 
economy  of  the  piece  and  his  own  poetic  and 
dramatic  aims  necessitated  the  transformation. 
Whatever  its  weaknesses  as  a  stage  play  and  what- 
ever its  historical  inaccuracies,  it  is  generally 
admitted  that  Egmont  and  Cliirchen  are  two  of 
the  most  admirable  and  sympathetic  characters, 
not  only  of  Goethe's,  but  of  any  drama. 

In  addition  Goethe  wrote  in  Italy  some  beautiful 
poems,  the  most  famous  being  Amor  als  Land- 
schaftsmaler,  written  at  the  beginning  of  1788, 
and  which  enshrines  the  memory  of  the  Schone 


126  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

Maildnderin,  Maddalena  Riggi.  He  added  some 
scenes  to  Faust,  notably  the  Hexenkiiche  scene, 
which,  though  written  in  the  gardens  of  the  Villa 
Borghese,  is  among  its  most  "  Northern  "  parts  ;  a 
Diary,  which  some  thirty  years  later  was  to  form 
the  foundation  of  the  Italienische  Reise ;  and  last 
but  not  least,  many  full  and  valuable  letters  to  the 
faithful  friends  left  behind  in  Weimar,  including 
Frau  von  Stein,  from  whom  the  journey  had  by  no 
means  meant  the  beginning  of  the  final  parting. 

After  spending  thus  nearly  a  full  year  in  Rome, 
entering  keenly  into  its  life,  and  assimilating  with 
all  his  power  all  it  had  to  offer,  after  adding,  too, 
a  Roman  carnival  to  his  other  experiences,  he  left 
sadly  his  land  of  freedom  on  April  22,  and,  passing 
quickly  through  even  Florence  and  Milan,  reached 
Weimar  on  June  18. 


CHAPTER  IX 

BACK    IN    WEIMAR 

J3  EGARDED  with  Italian  eyes,  Goethe's 
J.V  Northern  home  looked  very  diflfei'ent  to 
him  on  his  return.  Its  conventionalities  and  the 
etiquette  of  its  Court  seemed  more  petty.  His 
point  of  view  had  changed,  and  therewith  carried 
him  farther  from  the  friends  who  had  remained 
behind.  The  Duke  had  become  fully  emanci- 
pated, and  witli  Frau  von  Stein  an  estrangement 
took  place  which  soon  became  complete.  The 
departure  for  Italy  and  the  sojourn  there  had  not 
meant  a  break  with  the  reigning  sovereign  of  his 
first  Weimar  years,  as  the  letters  from  Italy  show, 
but  it  is  not  impossible  that  when  they  met  on 
his  return  the  new  Goethe  suffered  a  disillusion- 
ment, though  he  had  guarded  her  image  faithfully 
during  absence.  Whether  that  be  so  or  not,  an 
event  which  occurred  soon  after  his  arrival  in 
Weimar,  and  which  was  destined  to  have  a  very 
wide  bearing  on  his  life,  brought  about  a  final 
rupture. 

127 


iz8  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

In  June,  1788,  a  young  girl,  Christiane  Vulpius, 
whom  Goethe  had  already  met  in  Bertuch's  flower- 
factory,  where  she  worked,  and  where  he  had 
been  struck  by  her  ready  wit,  handed  him  in  the 
park  a  petition  on  behalf  of  her  brother,  a 
middling  writer  of  more  ambition  than  talents. 
She  captivated  Goethe's  fancy,  and  he  took  her 
into  his  house  ;  and  though  not  his  wife  in  name 
till  1806,  she  became  so  in  conscience. 

She  had  a  round,  full  figure,  bright  eyes,  good 
features,  and  a  laughing  face  surrounded  with 
curls.  Italy  had  freed  him  from  the  trammels  of 
conventionality  ;  he  had  learned  to  look  at  life 
through  his  own  eyes,  and  not  those  of  a  courtier, 
and  it  is  not  surprising  that  this  child  of  Nature, 
with  her  clear  faculties  and  mother-wit,  appealed 
to  him  more  than  the  ladies  of  the  Court,  who 
appeared  after  Italy  doubly  artificial. 

It  was  the  fashion  to  make  fun  of  Christiane  as 
"  the  cook,"  "  the  maid,"  the  Weimar  ladies  who 
circulated  slanders  and  ill-natured  reports  about 
her  doubtless  all  thinking  they  would  have  made 
more  suitable  helpmeets  for  the  master.  Even 
the  poems  bearing  on  their  relationship  give  all 
such  interpretations  the  lie,  and  still  more  is  this 
the  case  with  Goethe's  letters  to  her,  which  were 
long  unknown,  but  of  which  since  1891  more 
than  300  have  been  published  in  the  great 
Weimar  edition,  and  which  prove  that  Goethe's 


BACK  IN  WEIMAR  129 

treatment  of  Christiane  was  not  that  of  a  Sultan, 
but  that  he  treated  her  as  a  wife,  constantly 
expressing  his  deep  affection  for  her,  without  trace 
of  condescension,  and  discussing,  along  with  all 
domestic  affairs,  the  projects  of  his  larger  life. 

After  his  return  Goethe  did  not  take  up  again 
his  various  official  duties.  The  only  external  re- 
sponsibilities of  the  years  after  Italy  were  those  for 
all  Institutions  for  Art  and  Science  in  the  duchy, 
and  for  the  theatre — two  much  more  congenial 
offices  than  those  of  the  early  Weimar  days. 

When  the  theatre  was  reopened  in  1791,  Goethe 
became  its  director,  and  from  that  year  until  he 
gave  up  the  office  in  1817 — later  in  close  connec- 
tion with  Schiller — devoted  much  of  his  energies 
to  its  welfare,  writing,  translating,  and  adapting 
plays  for  it,  engaging  the  actors,  training  them, 
and  forming,  in  fact,  almost  a  Weimar  school  of 
acting,  with  a  definite  theory  and  practice  of  the 
art.  All  this  he  did  for  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
not  only  without  material  reward,  but  often  in  the 
face  of  much  unpleasantness  and  petty  ill-feeling, 
not  to  say  ingratitude.  For  his  own  dramatic 
powers  and  general  development,  however,  this 
very  practical  connection  with  a  theatre  was  of 
the  utmost  importance,  while  for  the  German 
drama  the  period  of  his  directorship  was  epoch- 
making. 

The  other  events  of  these  few  years  up  to  the 
9 


130  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

final  friendship  with  Schiller  are  soon  told.  In 
September,  1788,  Goethe  met  Schiller  for  the 
second  time  at  Rudolstadt,  but  the  meeting  and 
the  conversation  they  held  did  not  bring  them  any 
nearer  together.  Goethe  believed  the  author  of 
the  Rauber  to  be  still  an  exponent  of  the  Storm 
and  Stress  which  he  had  himself  outgrown,  and 
now  shunned  as  the  ghost  of  his  own  past  sin  ; 
while  Schiller,  not  free  from  envy  of  the  favoured 
lot  of  the  older  poet,  as  appears  in  the  correspon- 
dence with  Korner,  felt  no  personal  attraction. 

Many  short  journeys  were  undertaken  to  neigh- 
bouring Courts  and  cities,  while  in  1 790  he  was  once 
more  in  Venice,  whither  he  had  gone  to  meet  the 
Duchess  Anna  Amalia  on  her  return  from  Italy. 

In  the  same  year  he  accompanied  the  Duke  to 
Silesia,  where  the  Prussian  and  Austrian  rulers 
met,  and  so  was  dragged  into  personal  pai'ticipa- 
tion  in  the  great  upheaval  caused  by  the  French 
Revolution,  which  plays  so  important  a  part  even 
in  his  life  and  writings  during  this  period. 

In  1792  he  went  with  the  Duke  to  the  North  of 
France  to  take  part  in  thewar  against  the  Revolu- 
tionists, and  in  1793  to  the  siege  of  Mainz,  where 
he  made  frequent  opportunities  of  visiting  his  old 
Frankfort  home. 

He  was  interested  less  during  these  campaigns 
in  the  political  and  military  aspects  of  the  undei*- 
takings  than  in  the  opportunity  they  afforded  him 


BACK  IN  WEIMAR  131 

for  scientific  observation,  a  bombardment  furnish 
ing  him  with  interesting  optical  phenomena,  and 
a  battle  with  an  opportunity  of  experimenting  on 
his  own  sensations.  In  perfect  possession  of  soul 
he  worked  away  at  his  theory  of  colours  in  spite 
of  all  the  discomforts  of  the  unwonted  military 
life. 

Goethe's  account  of  these  experiences,  the 
Kampagne  in  Frankreich  and  Belagerung  von  Mainz, 
was  not  published  till  many  years  afterwards,  in 
1822,  during  the  period  of  his  principal  autobio- 
graphical labours. 

The  literary  work  of  the  time  stands  largely  in 
more  or  less  close  connection  with  these  outward 
events.  The  Ilomische  Elegien,  begun  in  1788, 
celebrate,  in  form  and  warmth  and  imagery  which 
is  due  to  the  inspiration  of  his  Italian  experiences, 
the  happiness  he  found  in  the  love  of  Christiane. 
Still  more  passionate  and  pagan  are  the  Vene- 
tianische  Epigramme,  which  were  the  fruit  of  the 
journey  to  Venice  in  1790. 

Results  of  Italian  labours  were  embodied  in 
Tasso,  the  prose  beginnings  of  which  date  back  to 
the  years  1780-81,  and  which  was  finally  com- 
pleted in  1789  and  printed  in  1790,  and  in  the 
Faust  fragment  which  appeared  in  1790,  almost 
unnoticed. 

Several  works  were   directly  inspired   by   the 
events    of    the    French    Revolution — the    satiric 
9—2 


i32  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

comedy,  the  Biirgergeneral  (1793) ;  the  dramatic 
fragment,  the  Anfgcregten  (1794),  in  which  the 
extremes  of  both  aristocracy  and  people  are  ridi- 
culed ;  the  Unterhaltwigen  deutscher  Aitsgewanderten 
(1793-1795),  a  prose  cycle-epic,  like  Boccaccio's 
Dccamerone,  embodying  conflicting  views  on  the 
great  question  of  the  day. 

Most  important  of  all  is  the  masterly  "lay- 
bible"  Reineke  Fuchs  (1794),  a  version  in  hexa- 
meters of  the  famous  old  mediaeval  beast-epic, 
after  a  popular  verse  embodiment  which  appeared 
at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Goethe  did 
not,  however,  go  back  to  this  version  directly,  but 
followed  closely  a  prose  translation  by  Gottsched, 
which  appeared  in  1752,  while  making  some 
alterations  which  gave  it  a  more  directly  modern 
and  individual  bearing.  Under  the  image  of  the 
animal  world  are  portrayed  the  petty  aims  and 
motives  of  the  "  little  world  of  men." 

In  addition  there  appeared  two  works  which 
resulted  from  the  scientific  studies  to  which  he 
ardently  devoted  himself  during  these  years,  the 
Metamorphose  der  Pflanzen  (1790),  and,  from  1791, 
the  Beitrcige  zur  Optik,  the  former  only  being  of 
real  scientific  value. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  time  immediately  following 
the  return  from  Italy  was  poor  in  really  creative 
work,  though  not  unproductive  in  other  respects. 
It  saw  the  completion  of  the  first  edition  of  his 


BACK  IN  WEIMAR  133 

collected  works,  the  Schriften,  published  with 
Goschen  in  Leipsic  in  eight  volumes  (1787-1790), 
the  preparation  of  which  was  begun  before  the 
journey  to  Italy,  and  continued  vigorously  while 
there,  and  the  commencement  of  a  second  with 
Unger  in  Berlin  (1792-1800),  the  Neue  Schriften, 
in  seven  volumes,  especially  important  in  that  it 
contained  the  beginning  of  the  novel  Wilhelm 
Meisters  Lehrjahre,  which  plays  so  important  a 
part  in  the  following  period,  and  in  the  welding 
of  literary  sympathies  in  the  early  stages  of  his 
friendship  with  Schiller. 


CHAPTER  X 

FRIENDSHIP   WITH    SCHILLER 

A  LITTLE  past  the  middle  of  his  life,  at  the 
age  of  forty-five,  a  fresh  stimulus  came  into 
Goethe's  life,  and  led  him  back  from  a  diffusion 
of  literary  energies  and  political  and  scientific 
writings  to  the  field  in  which  his  true  strength 
lay.  This  was  the  friendship  with  Schiller.  He 
himself  calls  it  his  "  new  spring,"  his  "  second 
youth,"  and  declares  that  Schiller  has  "  made  a 
poet  of  him  again." 

They  had  crossed  one  another's  paths  in  several 
ways  since  the  year  1779>  when  the  influential 
Minister  and  favourite,  and  still  more  famous 
poet,  had  first  appeared  in  the  flesh  to  the  enthu- 
siastic student  at  Stuttgart.  Schiller  had  come  to 
Weimar  during  Goethe's  absence  in  Italy,  and  on 
the  latter's  return  the  two  had  been  brought 
together  through  the  mediation  of  common  friends 
in  the  autumn  of  1788  ;  but  though  Goethe  was 
willing  enough  to  help  Schiller  to  a  professorship 
at  Jena — which  he  did  in  1789 — he  took  no  pains 
134 


FRIENDSHIP  WITH  SCHILLER     135 

to  enter  into  any  closer  relationship  with  him  as  a 
poet  and  a  man. 

From  1789  Schiller  lived  at  Jena,  near,  but  yet 
far,  and  his  feelings  towards  the  older  and  more 
fortunate  poet  passed  through  a  strange  conflict 
of  alternating  repulsion  and  attraction,  which 
ended,  however,  in  an  undivided  admiration  and 
respect. 

Gradually  the  two  drew  closer  together,  and 
finally  Schiller  took,  in  1794,  the  decisive  step 
which  brought  about,  with  all  the  suddenness  of 
an  overripe  event,  the  conclusion  of  that  close 
and  lasting  bond  of  friendship  which  united  them 
for  the  rest  of  their  lives. 

Schiller  was  seeking  contributors  for  his  latest 
periodical,  Die  Horen,  a  journal  intended  for  the 
elevation  of  German  taste,  to  be  published  with 
Cotta,  the  short  life  of  which  ran  from  1795  to  1797. 
He  had  already  enlisted  many  of  the  most  famous 
writers  of  the  day,  and  on  June  13,  1794,  wrote 
to  Goethe,  inviting  his  co-operation.  Goethe 
accepted,  and  on  August  23  Schiller  wrote  him  a 
long  and  memorable  letter,  in  which  he  showed 
how  closely  he  had  followed  his  development,  and 
with  what  pains  and  what  success  he  had  tried  to 
enter  into  the  spirit  of  his  life  and  work.  Four 
days  afterwards  Goethe  replied :  "  For  my  birth- 
day, which  falls  this  week,  I  could  have  had 
no  more  welcome  present  than  your  letter,  in 


136  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

which  with  friendly  hand  you  draw  the  sum  of 
my  existence,  and  by  your  sympathy  stimulate 
me  to  a  more  lively  and  assiduous  use  of  my 
powers." 

Thus  begun,  their  friendship  ripened  rapidly, 
and  it  soon  became  obvious  that  they  had  already 
for  some  time  been  making  for  the  same  goal, 
though  by  parallel  paths.  This,  moreover,  they 
continued  to  do  ;  for,  in  spite  of  the  consciousness 
of  common  aims,  the  two  poets  and  the  two 
men  remained  essentially  different  throughout  the 
whole  course  of  their  intimate  association,  even 
as  all  the  circumstances  and  conditions  of  their 
previous  life  had  been  in  striking  contrast. 

To  these  fundamental  differences  was  due, 
perhaps,  also  the  fact  that  the  friendship  never 
attained  to  that  warmth  of  personal  intimacy 
which  characterized  Goethe's  relationship  with,  if 
not  many,  yet  a  few  of  the  friends  with  whom  he 
was  far  from  being  on  so  equal  an  intellectual 
footing. 

It  is  idle  to  speculate  as  to  which  of  the  two 
gained  more  by  the  friendship.  Perhaps  at  the 
very  outset  Goethe  came  near  to  being  the 
greater  gainer  in  the  stimulus  he  received  from 
Schiller's  enthusiasm,  and  the  warmth  of  new- 
found intelligent  sympathy  for  his  more  serious 
literary  projects,  such  as  Meister  and  Faust; 
perhaps,  on  the  whole,  Schiller  profited  more 


FRIENDSHIP  WITH  SCHILLER     137 

from  the  ten  years'  intimacy  with  a  man  of 
Goethe's  great  personality,  full  knowledge,  and 
wide,  direct  experience  of  life.  However  it  may 
be,  the  years  of  their  alliance  were  fruitful  years 
for  both. 

The  first  business  was  the  furnishing  of  contri- 
butions for  the  Horen.  Schiller  would  have  liked 
to  publish  in  it  Wilhdm  Meisters  Lehrjahre,  but 
that  was  already  appearing  with  Unger  in  Berlin, 
a  fact  at  which  Goethe  expresses  his  regret,  as  it 
would  have  been  so  eminently  suitable  for  the 
new  journal. 

Goethe's  main  contributions  were  the  Romische 
E/egien  (1795)  and  the  Unterhaltungen  deutscher 
Ausgewanderten  (1795).  He  also  furnished  a 
translation  of  the  biography  of  Benvenuto  Cellini 
(1796-97).  Schiller  himself  was  represented  by 
the  Brief e  iiber  die  iisthetische  Erziehung  des  Menschen 
(1795)  and  the  Belagerung  von  Antwerpen  (1795). 
The  other  contributors  did  not  furnish  anything 
particularly  noteworthy  or  striking. 

Under  the  circumstances,  we  can  hardly  be 
very  surprised  that  this  new  periodical,  which  was 
to  be  so  superior  to  all  those  already  existing,  and 
to  elevate  and  refine  the  taste  of  the  reading 
public,  met  with  no  very  enthusiastic  or  en- 
couraging reception ;  in  fact,  it  fell  rather  flat, 
and  its  want  of  success  goaded  Goethe  and  Schiller 
to  an  attack  upon  the  mediocre  writers  of  the 


138  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

day,  whose  corruption  of  the  public  taste  they 
held  responsible  for  their  failure. 

The  idea  of  writing  the  distichs  known  as  the 
Xenien,  from  the  two-line  poems  of  Martial  de- 
scribing the  xenia,  or  hospitable  gifts  exchanged 
at  Rome  during  the  Saturnalia,  originated  at  the 
end  of  1795,  almost  certainly  with  Goethe. 
During  the  winter  the  idea  was  matured,  and  the 
"gifts"  grew  apace.  It  is  impossible  to  decide 
the  share  each  had  in  the  authorship  of  the 
several  distichs ;  no  work  could  have  been  a  more 
thorough  collaboration.  In  some  cases  the  idea 
was  due  to  the  one,  and  the  execution  to  the 
other  ;  one  wrote  the  hexameter,  the  other  the 
pentameter ;  and  all  attempts  which  have  been 
made  to  allot  them  to  the  one  or  the  other  are 
inconclusive.  What  is  certain  is  that  the  sting  is 
mostly  due  to  Schiller  ;  Goethe  was  much  less 
inclined  to  trenchant  measures. 

The  Xenien  appeared  in  1796  in  the  Musen- 
almanach,  a  new  periodical  founded  by  Schiller, 
which  ran  from  1796  to  1800.  It  was  the  most 
brilliant  of  all  his  journalistic  ventures,  and  in  it 
was  published  much  of  the  best  work  of  these 
years  which  lay  at  the  very  centre  of  Germany's 
Golden  Age.  The  storm  raised  by  their  appear- 
ance was  unparalleled,  though  at  our  distance  of 
time  it  is  hard  to  understand  the  bitterness  caused 
by  these  "  little  fellows,"  as  their  authors  called 


FRIENDSHIP  WITH  SCHILLER     139 

them,  now  that  the   keenness  of  their  personal 
allusion  has  become  dulled  by  time. 

Needless  to  say,  answer  followed,  but  from  the 
whole  tempest  aroused,  the  so-called  Xenienkampf, 
Goethe  and  Schiller  withdrew,  rightly  feeling 
that  the  only  worthy  answer  to  the  brawlers  was 
the  production  of  work  which  should  be  worthy 
of  that  higher  standard  of  taste  of  which  they  had 
appeared  as  the  champions.  Their  answer  to  the 
Anti-Xenien  was  Goethe's  Hermann  und  Dorothea 
and  Schiller's  Wallenstein. 

First,  however,  we  must  speak  of  a  work  which 
was  the  first  and  most  direct  result  of  Schiller's 
friendship,  Wilhelm  Meisters  Lehrjahre,  completed 
in  1796,  thanks  largely  to  the  stimulus  of  Schiller's 
absorbing  and  unwearying  interest. 

Their  letters  on  the  subject  form  one  of  the 
most  important  and  interesting  portions  of  that 
Correspondence  which  lasted  throughout  the  period 
of  their  friendship,  from  1794  to  1805,  though 
growing  naturally  far  less  considerable  when 
Schiller  migrated  from  Jena  to  Weimar  in  1799 
— a  correspondence  unrivalled  in  the  world  of 
letters,  in  the  insight  it  gives  into  the  details  of 
one  of  the  most  famous  of  literary  friendships, 
and  the  peep  it  furnishes  into  the  workshop  of 
genius.  Everything  is  discussed  with  the  greatest 
freedom ;  so  freely,  indeed,  are  names  treated  that 
Goethe  left  orders  that  the  correspondence  should 


140  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

be  kept  sealed  till  1850.  We  can  trace  the 
inception  of  works,  the  sources  employed,  while 
many  of  the  poems  are  only  to  be  fully  explained 
by  its  aid.  Moreover,  while,  for  instance,  in 
Dicktung  mid  Wahrheit  we  have  an  idealized  rather 
than  an  objective  picture  of  truth,  and  in 
Eckermann's  Conversations  Goethe's  intimacy  only 
through  the  medium  of  a  second  personality,  we 
have  here  the  two  in  undress,  the  thoughts  of 
the  moment  as  thrown  off  in  the  natural,  unarti- 
ficial  communications  of  fellow-workers,  and  en- 
tirely without  any  thought  of  the  possibility  of  a 
future  publication. 

The  Lehrjahre  had  been  begun  twenty  years 
earlier,  and  to  this  pre-Italian  period  belong  in 
all  probability  the  parts  which  show  the  most 
direct  arid  vivid  characterization  and  description. 
At  first  it  was  to  be  solely  a  novel  of  theatrical 
life,  but  afterwards  it  gained  a  wider  and  more 
general  bearing,  and  became  a  story  of  human 
development  and  education  through  experience 
and  personal  contact  with  life. 

Six  books  had  been  written  before  the  Italian 
journey.  It  was  now  completed  by  the  addition 
of  a  seventh  and  eighth.  It  contained  much  of 
Goethe's  own  life,  observation,  and  intellectual  and 
moral  development,  especially  from  his  earlier 
years,  and  must  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  his 
autobiographical  work,  and  more  particularly  as  a 


FRIENDSHIP  WITH  SCHILLER     141 

complement  of  Die/it ung  und  Wahrheit.  The  sixth 
book  consists  of  the  Bekenntnisse  einer  schonen  Seele, 
adapted  from  autobiographical  notes  of  his  pietistic 
friend,  Fraulein  von  Klettenberg,  who  had  exer- 
cised so  strong  an  influence  over  him  on  the 
return  from  Leipsic. 

The  construction  of  the  whole  is  wanting  in 
clearness.  Goethe  himself  described  the  work  to 
Schiller  as  "  one  of  the  most  incalculable  produc- 
tions, whether  regarded  as  a  whole  or  in  its  parts." 
It  is,  in  fact,  meant  to  give  a  broad  and  varied 
objective  picture  of  life,  not  focussed  through  any 
moral  idea,  and  as  such  is  necessarily  lacking  in 
one  kind  of  unity. 

Yet  both  for  itself,  and  from  the  time  of  its 
appearance,  it  became  the  most  important  in  its 
effects  of  all  German  novels,  while  it  may  be 
described  as  the  very  foundation  of  the  Romantic 
School,  the  youthful  disciples  of  which  were 
thrilled  by  the  mysterious  figures  of  Mignon  and 
the  Harper,  who,  while  expressing  in  part  Goethe's 
own  old  and  still  unsatisfied  longing  for  the  home 
of  the  citron  and  the  orange,  voiced  those  vague 
yearnings  and  aspirations  for  something  beyond 
the  actuality  of  the  material  world  which  pervade 
the  writings  of  that  school. 

In  June,  1797,  Goethe  finished  Hermann  und 
Dorothea,  a  work  which  Schiller  described  as  the 
".summit  of  Goethe's  and  of  all  our  modern  art." 


142  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

It  was  only  begun  in  the  autumn  of  1796,  and 
was  thus,  unlike  most  of  Goethe's  work,  carried 
through  without  interruption  from  beginning  to 
end. 

Imbued  with  the  spirit  of  Homer,  and  written 
in  the  classic  hexameter,  it  is  yet  Greek  only  in 
form  and  conception,  while  truly  German  and 
popular  in  its  faithful  presentment  of  the  homely 
and  unpretentious  life  of  a  little  Rhenish  town. 

Its  immediate  forerunner  was  Voss's  Luise,  but 
while  that  work  is  an  idyll,  Goethe's  poem 
contains  a  combination  of  the  epic  and  idyllic 
qualities,  being  perhaps  most  correctly  described 
as  an  idyllic  epic. 

The  theme  of  the  union  of  the  son  of  a  well-to- 
do  burgher  with  a  poor  exile  Goethe  took  from 
an  incident  which  occurred  at  Altmiihl  in  Bavaria 
in  1732,  when  Lutherans  were  exiled  for  their 
faith  from  Salzburg ;  and  by  changing  the  period 
to  that  of  the  French  Revolution  he  gave  to  his 
stage  a  wide  background,  which  enabled  him  to 
"  reflect  the  great  movements  and  changes  of  the 
world-stage  from  a  small  mirror." 

The  two  modes  of  thought  into  which  the 
whole  world  was  then  divided,  revolutionary  and 
conservative  sentiments,  are  contrasted.  Mine 
host  of  the  Golden  Lion  is  brought  rudely  into 
contact  with  the  events  of  the  stormy  world  out- 
side his  peaceful  home  and  native  town,  and  sees 


FRIENDSHIP  WITH  SCHILLER     143 

his  son  Hermann — for  whom  he  had  planned,  with 
the  help  of  a  suitable  marriage,  a  thoroughly 
comfortable  future— allied  to  Dorothea,  whose 
adventurous  appearance  is  typical  of  the  social 
upheaval  of  the  revolution  to  which  it  is  due. 
Hermann  stands  halfway  between  the  two  ex- 
tremes, and  in  this  youthful  citizen — who,  while 
not  sympathizing  with  all  the  excesses  of  the 
fanatical,  yet  regards  it  as  a  holy  duty  to  defend 
his  native  soil  from  aggression — we  may  perhaps 
surmise  something  of  Goethe's  own  convictions, 
and  of  his  conception  of  patriotism. 

Another  worthy  result  of  the  early  years  of 
the  friendship  of  the  two  poets  was  a  series  of 
beautiful  ballads,  written,  as  it  were,  in  rivalry  in 
the  year  1797,  the  so-called  Balladenjahr,  and 
published  in  the  Musenalmanach  for  1 798.  Goethe's 
contributions  included  the  Zauberlehrling,  Schatz- 
griiber,  Braut  von  Korinth,  Gott  und  die  Bajadere, 
while  Schiller  added  in  that  one  year  to  the 
lasting  possessions  of  the  German  nation  a 
wonderful  list  of  ballads,  each  of  which  has 
become  a  household  word — Der  Taucher,  Der 
Handschuh,  Die  Kraniche  des  Ibykus,  Der  Ritter 
Toggenburg,  and  others. 

In  this  same  year  Goethe  took  up  Faust  again, 
and  worked  at  it  till  1801,  when  it  once  more 
came  to  a  standstill.  In  1797,  too,  he  made  his 
third  and  last  journey  to  Switzerland,  passing 


144  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

through  Frankfort  on  his  way,  and  paying  what 
was  to  be  his  last  visit  to  his  mother.  He  took 
with  him  Christiane  and  his  son  August,  and  all 
were  received  with  jubilation  by  the  still  youth- 
ful and  merry  Frau  Rath.  Meantime  Schiller  had 
been  busily  working  at  his  first  great  dramatic 
masterpiece,  and  when  the  new  Court  Theatre 
was  opened  on  October  12,  1798,  it  was  with 
Wallemteins  Lager,  its  fine  prologue  celebrating 
the  auspicious  event,  and  duly  heralding  the 
golden  time  of  Weimar's  theatrical  supremacy. 
The  whole  Wallenstein  drama  in  its  three  parts 
was  not  completed  till  March,  1799,  and  then 
followed  in  unbroken  succession  the  other  famous 
dramas  of  Schiller,  the  appearance  of  which  on 
the  Weimar  stage  give  it  an  undying  title  to  fame 
in  the  annals  of  letters  and  of  dramatic  art. 

In  1799  Schiller  settled  finally  in  Weimar,  and 
what  he  and  Goethe  gained  in  facility  of  com- 
munication we  lose  in  the  less  full  information 
which  their  correspondence  henceforward  naturally 
supplies. 

The  next  six  years,  which  were  those  of 
Schiller's  greatest  productivity,  were  not  marked 
by  much  work  of  the  first  importance  on  Goethe's 
part.  As  director  he  gave  much  time  to  theatrical 
affairs.  He  wrote  prologues  and  masques  ;  adapted 
and  translated  plays  for  the  enrichment  of  the 
repertoire  ;  composed  the  "  Festspiele,"  Was  wir 


FRIENDSHIP  WITH  SCHILLER     145 

bringen  (1802),  and  the  Vorspiel  zur  Eroffnung  des 
Weimarischen  Theaters  (1802);  while  the  most 
important  of  all  was  the  drama  Die  Natiirliche 
Tochter  (1803),  which  was  to  have  been  only  the 
first  part  of  a  trilogy  dealing  with  the  French 
Revolution,  but  which  remained  uncompleted. 
The  play  is  not  one  of  Goethe's  most  successful 
creations.  The  striving  after  a  purely  objective 
treatment  borders  too  closely  upon  vague  generali- 
zation, a  tendency  in  Goethe's  "  classical  "  period, 
and  lacks  the  clear  individualization  essential  to 
the  drama. 

From  1798  to  1800  he  published  a  periodical, 
Die  Propylaen,  in  which,  together  with  the  faithful 
Meyer,  he  appeared  as  art  critic,  and  as  continuer 
of  the  aesthetic  theories  and  principles  of  Winckel- 
mann,  whom  he  again  in  his  work  IVinckelmann 
und  sein  Jahrhundert  (1805)  championed  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  principles  of  the  Romantic  move- 
ment. 

Much  of  his  energy  was  devoted  to  other  than 
purely  literary,  to  say  nothing  of  poetical  work. 
Of  his  administration  of  the  theatre  and  his 
artistic  preoccupations  we  have  already  spoken, 
while  to  his  scientific  investigations,  more  es- 
pecially of  the  theory  of  colours,  he  devoted  a 
considerable  share  of  his  time  and  thought. 

Last  but  not  least,  his  social  duties  grew  with 
his  fame,  and  more  and  more  time  was  taken  up 
10 


146  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

with  the  receiving  of  visits,  many  of  which  he 
could  have  well  spared.  Most  famous  of  these 
visitors  was  Madame  de  Stael,  who,  having 
journeyed  expressly  to  the  German  Athens  to 
make  the  acquaintance  of  its  celebrities,  was  not 
to  be  cheated  of  the  acquaintanceship  of  the 
greatest  of  them,  though  Goethe  did  his  best  to 
avoid  her.  She  was  in  Weimar  at  the  beginning 
of  1803,  was  entertained  by  him  at  his  house, 
and  met  him  on  several  occasions.  Her  Weimar 
experiences  she  enshrined  in  her  book  DC  i'Alle- 
magne. 

In  the  early  days  of  1801  Goethe  was  seriously 
ill  :  it  looked  as  though  Schiller  would  live  to 
mourn  his  death.  The  first  years  of  the  new 
century  inflicted  heavy  losses  on  the  ranks  of 
German  writers.  Herder  died  in  1 803,  Klopstock 
and  Kant  in  the  following  year. 

In  January,  1 805,  both  Goethe  and  Schiller  were 
dangerously  ill,  and  again  Schiller  seemed  likely 
to  be  the  survivor,  for  he  was  the  first  to  recover, 
and  at  the  beginning  of  March  was  able  to  visit 
Goethe  in  his  sick-room,  and  to  continue  work  on 
his  great  Russian  tragedy  Demetrius. 

On  April  29  they  met  for  the  last  time,  when 
Goethe  accompanied  Schiller  as  far  as  his  own 
house,  though  he  was  yet  too  unwell  to  go  on 
with  him  to  the  play.  In  the  theatre  Schiller 
was  taken  seriously  ill,  and  he  died  on  May  9. 


FRIENDSHIP  WITH  SCHILLER     147 

Goethe  was  still  so  ill  that  they  did  not  dare  at 
first  to  tell  him  the  sad  news  ;  but  he  gathered 
from  the  manner  of  those  about  him  that  they 
were  keeping  something  from  him,  and  his 
thoughts  referred  it  to  Schiller.  When  Christiane 
came  into  his  room  the  morning  after  Schiller's 
death,  he  said  to  her :  "  Schiller  was  very  ill 
yesterday,  was  he  not  ?"  and  when  she  burst 
into  sobs  he  guessed  the  worst,  exclaiming  him- 
self: "He  is  dead."  She  confessed  that  he  had 
spoken  the  terrible  truth,  and  with  bitter  tears, 
and  covering  his  face  with  his  hands,  Goethe 
received  the  blow,  from  which  he  never  fully 
recovered.  "  I  have  lost  the  half  of  my  existence," 
he  wrote  to  Zelter  on  June  1. 

His  first  thought  was  to  complete  his  friend's 
unfinished  tragedy  ;  another  design  was  to  com- 
pose a  great  masque  in  his  honour,  in  which 
allegorical  figures  from  his  works  should  appear  ; 
but  neither  plan  was  carried  out.  The  monument 
he  raised  to  the  departed  poet  was  the  Epilog  zu 
Schillers  Glocke,  written  in  the  August  of  1805, 
and  given  as  an  epilogue  to  a  memorial  perform- 
ance of  Schiller's  Lied  von  dcr  Glocke  on  August  1 0 
of  that  year.  It  forms  a  noble  and  stately  eulogy 
and  a  touching  expression  of  his  sense  of  loss, 
while  it  found  a  worthy  complement  in  the  poem 
Terzinen  bei  der  Betrachtung  von  Schillers  Schddcl  in 
1827. 

10 — 2 


148  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

In  Schiller  Germany  lost  its  greatest  dramatist, 
and  one  of  its  noblest  and  most  inspiring  poets 
and  thinkers.  It  is  needless  to  discuss  the 
question  whether  he  or  Goethe  was  the  greater ; 
the  answer  is  one  that  time  is  likely  to  make 
ever  clearer  and  more  certain.  Rather  we  should 
remember  Goethe's  advice  to  the  Germans,  "  to  be 
grateful  that  they  had  two  such  fellows."  They 
were  frankly  different,  and  each  was  in  large 
measure  the  complement  of  the  other.  Schiller's 
death  dissolved  for  the  moment  the  famous 
Dioskurenbiind,  but  time  has  united  them  again, 
and  to-day  they  live  for  us,  as  in  the  famous  statue 
of  Rietschel  before  the  Court  Theatre  in  Weimar, 
an  ideal  pair  of  friends  and  fellow-workers. 


GOETHE   AND   SCHILLEK    MONUMENT    IN    WEIMAR 


CHAPTER  XI 

OLD    AGE 

TWENTY-SEVEN  years  of  life  still  remained 
to  Goethe,  an  evening  full  of  activity, 
which,  although  devoted  more  and  more  to  calm 
reflection  and  retrospect,  saw  the  completion  of 
more  than  one  task,  and,  above  all,  that  of  his 
life's  work,  Famt.  Science,  autobiography,  philo- 
sophical poetry,  Faust — on  these  the  greatest  part 
of  his  labour  in  these  last  years  was  expended. 

The  time  following  Schiller's  death  was  a 
troubled  one  for  Germany,  nor  did  Goethe  escape 
the  common  lot;  the  years  from  1806  to  1813 
brought  him  many  unpleasantnesses. 

In  1806*  war  came  to  his  very  door.  On 
October  14  the  Battle  of  Jena  was  fought. 
Weimar  was  invested  by  the  French,  and  during 
the  plundering  by  the  victorious  soldiery  his  life 
was  in  danger,  and  was  only  saved  by  the  presence 
of  mind  of  the  faithful  Christiane.  Moved  by  the 
danger  and  insecurity,  and  probably  by  considera- 
tions of  the  circumstances  in  which  those  left 
149 


150  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

behind  would  find  themselves  in  the  case  of  his 
death,  Goethe  carried  out  the  resolution  he  had 
long  entertained,  and  went  through  the  religious 
ceremony  of  marriage  with  Christiane.  The  new 
Frau  Geheimratin  von  Goethe  was  introduced  into 
the  Weimar  society,  but  even  Goethe's  name  was 
not  enough  to  procure  her  a  good  reception. 

This  year  of  1806  was  in  other  ways  a  very 
eventful  one.  On  October  15  Napoleon  entered 
Weimar,  but  it  was  not  till  two  years  later  that  he 
and  Goethe  met.  The  printing  of  the  Farbenlehre 
was  at  length  begun,  and  the  first  part  of  Fmist 
completed. 

The  two  following  years  brought  with  them 
heavy  losses  for  Goethe,  whose  mourning  for 
Schiller  was  still  fresh.  In  1807  the  death  of  the 
Dowager  Duchess,  Anna  Amalia,  removed  one  of 
the  strongest  links  with  the  Weimar  of  his  youth, 
and  one  who  was  bound  by  many  ties,  not  only  to 
the  poet,  but  also  to  his  mother.  The  next  year 
(1808)  that  mother  herself  died,  at  the  age  of 
seventy-eight.  She  remained  the  same  bright, 
cheerful  "  Frau  Aja  "  to  the  end,  meeting  death 
with  the  same  courage  and  good -humour  with 
which  she  had  always  faced  life,  and  loving  with 
a  mother's  pride  her  ' '  Wolf,"  who  incidentally  was 
so  famous  a  man.  She  had  lived,  too,  to  welcome 
and  entertain  Christiane  as  a  daughter-in-law,  and 
delight  in  her  little  grandson. 


OLD  AGE  151 

At  the  end  of  her  life  a  fresh  communication 
was  established  between  mother  and  son  by 
Bettina  Brentano,  the  sister  of  Clemens  Brentano, 
grand-daughter  of  the  Frau  von  Laroche  in  whose 
house  Goethe  stayed  at  Thalehrenbreitstein  on 
the  way  back  from  Wetzlar  in  1772,  and  daughter 
of  Maximiliane — the  "Max"  who  married  a 
Frankfort  merchant,  Brentano,  and  sought  in 
Goethe's  society  consolation  for  the  tedium  of  her 
new  life,  to  her  husband's  no  slight  displeasure 
and  jealousy.  Bettina  herself  married  Von  Arnim, 
one  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the  Romanticists, 
and  was  herself  a  poetess  and  very  characteristic 
member  of  the  Romantic  school. 

Bettina  visited  Goethe's  mother  daily,  and  she 
communicated  to  Goethe  stories  from  his  mother's 
lips  which  formed  valuable  contributions  to  his 
autobiography.  Some  years  before  she  had  sent 
word  to  him  that  she  loved  him  as  Mignon  did 
Wilhelm,  and  this  Mignon  idea  grew  in  her  mind 
to  a  passion  of  romantic  and  sentimental  worship. 
In  1807  she  visited  Weimar,  and  Goethe  appears 
to  have  been  somewhat  embarrassed  by  the  force 
of  her  fantastic  emotions.  A  correspondence 
began  which  was  maintained  for  five  years,  and 
out  of  which  Bettina,  in  her  famous  book,  the 
Briefwechsel  Goethes  mil  einein  Kiiide,  published  in 
1835,  fashioned  an  autobiographical  letter-novel 
of  the  most  romantic  type,  and  a  monument  both 


152  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

to  Goethe  and  to  herself,  the  most  impassioned  of 
Goethe's  admirers. 

Bettina  was  in  some  small  measure  the  inspira- 
tion of  Goethe's  Smidte,  but  a  far  more  powerful 
influence  at  the  time  was  Minna  Herzlieb,  the 
foster-daughter  of  the  publisher,  K.  F.  Frommann 
in  Jena,  at  whose  house  Goethe  met  her.  To  the 
circle  which  met  there  belonged  also  Zacharias 
Werner,  in  rivalry  with  whom  Goethe  was  him- 
self tempted  to  try  the  "  romantic  "  sonnet  form. 
Under  the  influence  of  the  Sonettenrvut  he  wrote  a 
cycle  of  seventeen  sonnets,  which,  however,  are 
not  among  his  best  work,  and  do  nothing  to 
increase  his  fame.  They  are  chiefly  addressed  to 
Minna,  for  whom  a  passion  had  sprung  up  in  his 
breast  which  he  found  it  hard  to  fight  down. 

His  love  and  conflict  are  also  reflected  in  the 
Wahlvenvandtschaften  (Elective  Affinities),  which 
was  completed  and  finished  in  October,  1809,  and 
which,  originally  intended  to  form  one  of  the 
stories  in  the  Wanderjahre,  grew  too  large  for  its 
frame  and  attained  its  present  form.  In  it  we 
have  a  psychological  study  of  the  cross-attractions 
between  four  people  acting  like  the  affinities  of 
chemical  substances.  We  have  the  married  pair, 
Edward  and  Charlotte,  and  the  Captain  and 
Ottilie,  Charlotte's  niece,  and  the  working  of 
natural  affinity  is  just  as  fateful  as  in  Wcrther, 
though  endowed  with  more  dignity  and  narrated 


OLD  AGE  153 

with  more  reserve  and  classic  restraint.  Charlotte 
and  the  Captain  are  strong  enough  to  bear  their 
fate,  but  Edward  and  Ottilie  are  only  released  by 
death.  Goethe  himself  and  Minna  were  to  some 
extent  the  prototypes  of  Edward  and  Ottilie, 
though  it  is  needless  to  say  that  the  likeness  is 
less  pronounced  than  in  the  corresponding  novel 
of  his  youth.  In  construction  and  depth  of 
psychological  analysis  it  is  one  of  Goethe's  most 
perfect  masterpieces. 

The  preceding  year,  1808,  which  saw  the  death 
of  his  mother,  was  in  other  respects  a  marked 
year  in  his  life.  On  October  2  he  had  the  famous 
interview  with  Napoleon  at  Erfurt,  in  which  the 
greatest  man  of  action  and  the  foremost  man  of 
letters  of  the  day  found  that  a  personal  meeting 
did  not  diminish  the  opinion  each  had  formed 
of  the  other.  Napoleon,  breakfasting,  beckoned 
Goethe  to  approach,  and  addressed  him  with  the 
words,  "  Vous  etes  un  homme  !"  He  talked  to 
him  of  Werther,  telling  him  that  he  had  read  it 
seven  times,  and  suggesting  alterations  of  the 
plot. 

Goethe  had  always  admired  Napoleon.  He 
was  not  hostile,  or  even  indifferent,  to  the  national 
exertions  in  the  Wars  of  Liberation ;  he  merely 
believed  Napoleon  invincible  and  those  efforts 
vain.  "  Shake  away  at  your  chains,"  he  said  to 
Korner  in  1813  ;  "  the  man  is  too  big  for  you." 


154  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

In  1808,  too,  appeared  the  first  part  of  Faust, 
to  be  followed  only  after  more  than  twenty  years 
by  the  second.  In  1809  he  formed  with  Von 
Voigt  the  commission  for  all  institutions  for 
science  and  art,  an  office  which  must  have  been 
congenial  and  interesting  to  him. 

After  many  years  of  labour  appeared  at  last,  in 
1810,  his  great  work  of  scientific  controversy,  Die 
Farbenlehre,  the  one  to  which  he  had  devoted  the 
most  effort,  and,  somewhat  pathetically,  the  one 
which  is  scientifically  the  least  successful.  The 
whole  work  is  too  subjective,  treats  rather  of  the 
psychological  effect  than  of  the  physiological 
properties  of  light  and  colour.  The  historical 
part  is  as  excellent  as  the  controversial  part  is 
weak  and  unworthy  of  its  author.  In  the  latter, 
vituperation,  confident  assertion,  and  appeals 
(which  have  remained  unheard)  to  posterity,  do 
not  form  a  good  substitute  for  fair  battle  offered 
to  Newton  on  his  own  ground — for  the  "  mathe- 
matical" as  against  the  "natural"  treatment. 
In  spite  of  Goethe's  irritation  at  its  stupidity, 
humanity  still  to-day  regards,  with  Newton,  white 
light  as  compounded,  and  not  simple,  and  colours 
as  wave-phenomena,  and  not  as  various  com- 
binations of  the  simple  ingredients  of  light  and 
darkness.  In  spite  of  the  magnificently  vivid 
descriptions  of  phenomena  and  the  other  ex- 
cellences of  the  work,  it  must  be  regarded  as 


GOETHK   AGED   SEVENTY-NINE 


OLD  AGE  155 

Goethe's  great  failure,  his  one  great  persistence 
in  a  wrong  cause,  his  one  battle  on  the  losing 
side. 

Much  time  is  given  in  this  last  period  of  his 
life  to  the  study  of  natural  science.  In  the  years 
1817  to  1824  there  appear  Zur  Natunvissenschaft 
uberkaupt  and  Zur  Morphologic,  and  all  his  writings, 
including  the  Metamorphose  der  Pflanzen,  Spiral ten- 
denz  der  Pflanzen,  with  other  botanical  essays,  and 
his  treatise  on  the  inlennaxillarij  bone  in  man — the 
discovery  of  which  was,  perhaps,  his  most  impor- 
tant contribution  to  science — are  permeated  with 
the  idea  of  a  general  development  running  through 
the  whole  universe,  which  was  to  receive  a  more 
conscious  expression  in  the  theory  of  evolution,  to 
be  formulated  by  Darwin  more  than  twenty  years 
after  his  death.  At  the  same  time  there  is 
always  in  Goethe's  scientific  thought  too  much  of 
the  subjective,  anthropomorphizing  tendency,  too 
much  of  the  "  idea/'  to  leave  full  room  for  the 
purely  objective  "experience." 

In  the  last  two  decades  of  his  life  the  auto- 
biographical writings,  which  form  more  than  a 
fifth  of  his  whole  work,  play  a  specially  important 
part.  In  the  year  1811  there  began  to  appear 
the  greatest  of  all  of  them,  and  one  of  the  most 
wonderful  and  interesting  of  autobiographies  ever 
written,  Ann  meinem  Leben  Dichtung  und  Wahrheil, 
in  which  the  man  of  sixty  looks  back  on  his  youth, 


156  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

and,  as  the  title  indicates,  interprets  facts  by  the 
light  of  poetry.  As  these  are  at  the  same  time 
only,  in  the  main,  remembered  facts,  and  the 
author,  moreover,  attached,  in  this  picture  of  the 
development  of  an  individual  human  soul,  greater 
importance  to  the  presentment  of  the  underlying 
general  truth  than  to  literal  exactness,  we  cannot 
place  that  reliance  upon  its  word  that  we  can 
upon  its  spirit.  Yet,  in  spite  of  the  inaccuracies 
which  have  been  laid  bare  by  patient  investiga- 
tion, Dichtung  und  Wahrheit  will  always  remain 
one  of  the  world's  greatest  books — a  charming 
picture  of  the  youth  of  genius,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  priceless  source  of  information  as  to  the 
life,  and,  above  all,  the  literature,  of  an  epoch. 
Part  I.,  containing  the  first  five  books,  appeared 
in  the  above-mentioned  year,  the  next  five  in 
1812,  the  two  remaining  parts  in  1814  and  1833 
respectively. 

Other  biographical  works  appeared  in  quick 
succession.  The  Italienische  Reise  was  published  in 
1816-17,  the  Kampagne  in  Frankreich  in  1822,  the 
Belagerung  von  Mains  in  1829.  The  Annalen  oder 
Tages-  und  Jahreshefte,  als  Ergunzung  meiner  son- 
stigen  Bekenntnisse,  which  embrace  the  years  from 
1749  to  1822,  were  written  from  1819  to  1826, 
and  published  in  1830.  The  record  of  his  old  age 
is  completed  by  the  Tagebucher,  which  he  con- 
tinued to  dictate  right  up  to  the  last,  and  the 


OLD  AGE  157 

various  Correspondences  and  recorded  Conversations, 
of  which  mention  will  be  made  later. 

The  celebration  of  peace  in  1814  Goethe,  in 
spite  of  the  slight  interest  he  displayed  in  the 
Befreiungskricge,  commemorated  by  an  allegorical 
festival  play,  Des  Epimenides  Ertvachen,  written  for 
Berlin,  which  contains  much  fervid  patriotism, 
though  it  must  be  added  that  its  composition  was 
due  rather  to  external  instigation  than  to  a  spon- 
taneous impulse. 

The  great  work  of  the  years  181 4'to  1819,  which 
appeared  in  the  last-named  year,  the  Westostliche 
Divan,  does  not  bear  testimony  to  an  ordinary 
patriotic  interest  in  the  fate  of  his  fatherland,  but 
is,  as  the  opening  poem  declares,  a  flight  from  a 
world  of  tottering  thrones  and  crumbling  empires 
to  the  serene  atmosphere  of  the  East. 

The  translation  of  the  Divan  of  the  fourteenth- 
century  Persian  poet  Hafiz  by  the  Viennese 
Orientalist,  Joseph  von  Hammer-Purgstall,  had 
just  appeared,  and  Goethe,  who  had  for  some 
time  been  taking  a  special  interest  in  Oriental 
thought  and  poetry,  was  fired  by  his  work  to 
production,  and  resolved  to  throw  into  this  form, 
so  suitable  to  his  age  and  the  circumstances  of  the 
time,  his  own  reflections  and  experiences.  He 
was  further  stimulated  by  the  attachment  for 
Marianne  von  Willemer,  the  newly-married  wife 
of  a  Frankfort  banker,  with  whom  he  stayed  at 


158  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

the  GeHbermiihle  in  Frankfort  in  1814-  and  1815, 
when  he  saw  his  home  again  after  seventeen 
years,  and  for  the  last  time. 

Not  only  did  Marianne  take  the  liveliest  interest 
in  the  work,  but  she  also  herself  composed  some 
of  the  most  beautiful  songs  in  the  collection.  She 
appears  under  the  name  of  Suleika,  while  Goethe 
is  Hatem.  Napoleon  is  Timur,  and  a  Buck  des 
Timur  was  planned,  but  did  not  get  beyond  a 
couple  of  poems.  The  title  "  West-Eastern "  is 
merited,  for,  in  spite  of  the  Oriental  names,  colour, 
imagery,  and  to  some  extent  form,  it  is  Western 
in  thought  and  underlying  experience. 

The  years  1813  and  1816  again  inflicted  heavy 
losses  on  Goethe's  circle.  In  the  former,  Wieland, 
doyen  of  the  Weimar  group,  died  at  the  ripe  age 
of  eighty  ;  in  the  latter,  Christiane's  death  dis- 
solved a  union  of  thirty  years,  and  robbed  him 
of  a  faithful  companion  and  helpmeet,  who  had 
become  through  constant  association  ever  more  a 
part  of  the  daily  and  hourly  needs.  His  sense  of 
irreparable  loss  Goethe  expressed  in  the  well- 
known  verse : 

"  Du  versuchst,  O  Sonne,  vergebens, 
Durch  die  diistern  Wolken  zu  scheinen  ! 
Der  ganze  Gewinn  ineines  Lebens 
1st,  ihren  Verlust  zu  beweinen." 

Yet,  in  spite  of  illness,  loss,  and  care,  neither 


OLD  AGE  159 

energy  nor  will  weakened  ;  restlessly  he  worked 
on  to  the  fulfilment  of  his  destiny.  He  is  now 
the  Patriarch,  the  grand  old  man,  of  Weimar ; 
now  pilgrims  journey  from  far  lands  to  do  homage 
to  the  still  living  Immortal.  Artists  seek  to  insure 
his  features  from  oblivion  ;  his  words  and  writings 
are  treasured  by  those  who,  through  the  con- 
sciousness of  his  present  greatness,  have  a  pre- 
sentiment of  still  greater  fame  to  come.  He  is 
the  acknowledged  chief  of  literature ;  his  works 
are  translated  into  all  civilized  tongues.  The  age 
of  his  own  youth  and  prime  gradually  becomes  a 
vanished  past ;  one  after  the  other  old  links  are 
severed,  and  he  experiences  the  truth  that  to  live 
long  means  to  outlive.  Yet  succeeding  genera- 
tions are  around  him.  His  son  August  and 
daughter-in-law  Ottilie  lead  their  not  very  happy 
or  successful  married  life  under  his  roof,  while 
his  little  grandsons  form  an  ever- increasing  source 
of  comfort  to  him,  and  compensate  for  the  in- 
harmonious element  which  their  parents  have 
introduced  into  his  life. 

In  the  very  year  of  Christiane's  death  he 
founded  a  new  journal,  Kunst  und  AUertum,  which 
appeared,  in  six  volumes,  down  to  the  year  of  his 
death,  and,  written  almost  exclusively  by  Goethe 
himself,  was  representative  of  his  manifold  in- 
terests and  his  cosmopolitanism  in  literature. 
England  did  not  escape  his  attention ;  Byron, 


160  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

Carlyle,  and  Scott  especially  were  followed  by 
him  with  appreciation.  It  is  a  depository  for 
various  productions  —  criticism,  short  poems, 
essays. 

In  1816-17  we  have  seen  that  he  published 
the  Italienische  Reise.  In  1817  he  gave  up  the 
direction  of  the  theatre  after  a  management  of  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  retaining  thenceforward  only 
the  superintendence  of  all  other  institutions  for 
science  and  art  in  Weimar  and  Jena. 

In  1815  to  1819  there  appeared  with  Cotta  in 
Stuttgart  and  Tubingen  an  edition  of  his  works 
in  twenty  volumes,  and  he  began  the  preparation 
of  the  final  edition,  the  Ausgabe  letzter  Hand, 
which  appeared,  likewise  with  Cotta,  from  1827 
to  1830,  in  forty  volumes,  the  labour  on  which 
helped  to  fill  with  interesting  employment  the 
end  of  his  tireless  old  age. 

In  1821  there  appeared  the  first  part  of  the 
Wander jahre,  with  the  Wahlverwandtschaften  and 
Faust  one  of  the  three  great  works  of  this  final 
period.  The  second  part  did  not  appear  till 
1829,  as  vols.  xxi.  to  xxiii.  of  the  Ausgabe  Iclzter 
Hand.  The  whole  is  not  grouped  around  Wilhelm's 
personality,  as  is  the  Lehrjahre;  it  is  more  directly 
pedagogical,  a  great  novel  dealing  with  the  moral 
education  of  man.  The  characters  are  shadowy  ; 
the  style  is  tbat  of  his  old  age — too  reflective  and 
abstract ;  the  language  is  marked  by  stereotyped 


OLD  AGE  161 

expressions  and  formulas.  Some  of  the  short 
stories  are  fresh  and  vivid,  though  most  belong  to 
an  earlier  time.  Among  the  best  are  the  Flucht 
nuch  Aegypten  and  the  Mann  von  funfzig  Jahren. 
Yet  the  whole  is  full  of  beauty  and  wisdom,  and 
without  it  our  knowledge  of  Goethe's  moral  world 
would  be  much  less  complete. 

Three  volumes  of  the  final  edition  were  re- 
served for  the  Wanderjahre ;  but,  deceived  by  a 
too  spacious  handwriting,  Goethe  found  the  manu- 
script insufficient,  and  to  fill  the  space  allotted  all 
sorts  of  maxims  and  proverbs  were  inserted,  which 
have  no  organic  connection  with  the  whole,  and 
serve  to  make  the  work  even  more  lacking  in 
unity  than  it  would  otherwise  have  been. 

Moralizing  poetry  and  philosophical  prose  in 
many  forms  composed  a  considerable  proportion 
of  the  writings  of  the  later  years,  and  under  such 
titles  as  Spriiche ;  Sprichrvortlich  ;  Gott,  Gemiit,  und 
Well ;  Zahme  Xenien,  we  have  storehouses  of  his 
wisdom,  while  the  confessions  contained  in  his 
various  autobiographical  works  complete  our  full 
record  of  his  philosophy  in  the  reflective  evening 
of  his  life. 

For  years  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  visiting 
famous  watering-places.  In  1807  and  the  follow- 
ing years  he  was  frequently  in  Carlsbad.  During 
the  years  1821  to  1823  he  paid  an  annual  visit  to 
Marienbad.  On  the  second  of  these,  in  1822,  he 
11 


1 62  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

met  a  young  girl  of  nineteen,  Ulrike  von  Levetzow, 
who  aroused  in  him  a  last  and  violent  passion. 
In  spite  of  the  more  than  fifty  years  which  lay 
between  them,  Goethe  certainly  entertained  for  a 
time  the  thought  of  a  union,  though  such  a  project 
was  never  put  into  words.  His  love  and  the 
pain  of  renunciation  he  expressed  in  the  beautiful 
Marienbader  Elegie,  which  appears  in  the  works 
as  the  central  member  of  the  Trilogie  der  Leidcn- 
schaft. 

The  year  1823  is  marked  by  the  establishment 
of  Johann  Peter  Eckermann  as  Goethe's  per- 
manent secretary  and  fellow-worker.  In  place  of 
occasional  assistance  and  varying  companionship, 
Goethe  now  enjoyed  for  the  remainder  of  his  life 
the  advantage  of  the  constant  presence  of  a  faithful, 
patient,  and  adoring  disciple.  Though  somewhat 
self-important  and  apt  to  be  ponderous,  Ecker- 
mann was  gifted  with  many  of  the  best  qualities 
of  a  Boswell.  He  was  receptive  and  appreciative, 
and  to  his  unquestioning,  painstaking  fidelity  we 
owe  the  Gcsprdche  mit  Goethe  (1836-48),  which 
preserve  for  us,  with  a  directness  no  formal  work 
could  rival,  the  workings  of  Goethe's  mind,  and 
lead  us,  as  it  were,  into  the  workshop  of  his 
ideas. 

Eckermann' s  own  dreams  of  literary  fame  have 
remained  unfulfilled,  but  he  has  won  for  himself 
the  gratitude  of  posterity,  and  a  place  in  the 


OLD  AGE  163 

literary  firmament  as  a  satellite  of  the  greater 
luminary.  After  Goethe's  death  he  was  appointed, 
with  Riemer,  his  literary  executor,  and  from  1832 
to  1842  they  published  in  twenty  volumes  the 
Nachgelassene  Werke,  thus  making  up  the  whole 
final  edition  to  sixty  volumes. 

In  1 828  Goethe  published  his  Bricfrvechsel  mil 
Schiller,  the  only  one  he  himself  prepared  for 
publication,  except  that  with  Zelter,  which 
appeared  in  1833-34. 

In  these  years  death  was  very  busy  in  the  ranks 
of  his  friends.  In  1827  Charlotte  von  Stein  died 
at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty-six,  in  1828  the 
Duke,  and  in  1830  the  Duchess  Luise.  In  the 
latter  year,  too,  his  son  August  died  in  Rome,  and 
his  death  was  a  great  blow  to  the  father,  who  had 
loved  him  in  spite  of  his  wild,  reckless  life  and 
moral  instability. 

In  1830  the  Ausgabe  letzter  Hand  reached  com- 
pletion. It  contained  the  second  part  of  Faust 
as  a  fragment,  but  it  was  not  till  July  of  the 
following  year  that  Goethe  finished  this  life's 
work,  to  which  he  had  devoted  his  chief  energies 
since  1825.  It  appeared  the  year  after  his  death, 
in  1833. 

We  cannot  here  speak  in  detail  of  the  great 

work,  the   composition  of  which   extended   over 

more  than  sixty  years  of  his  life,  and  into  which 

he  put  the  vivid  realism  of  his  stormy  youth  and 

11—2 


164  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

the  cairn,  reflective  wisdom  of  his  extreme  old 
age.  Merely  to  chronicle  the  literature  that  has 
gathered  about  Faust  would  take  up  many  times 
the  space  that  is  here  at  disposal. 

The  First  Part  has  long  been  recognised  as  one 
of  the  profoundest  pictures  in  the  world's  litera- 
ture of  the  inner  life  of  man,  in  which  everyone 
can  see  mirrored  his  own  inward  experiences,  and 
the  conflict  of  the  two  sides  which  make  up  our 
dual  nature. 

The  history  of  the  sixteenth-century  scholar, 
magician,  and  dealer  in  the  black  arts,  Faust, 
whom  Goethe,  like  others  who  treated  the 
subject,  had  learnt  to  know  from  the  Faustbuch 
which  appeared  in  1587,  becomes  the  history  of 
man  making  his  way  through  life,  and  so  con- 
ditioned by  the  strange  partnership  of  his  material 
and  spiritual  natures,  that  he  can  neither  find 
lasting  happiness  in  the  satisfaction  of  his  senses, 
nor  entirely  dwell  beyond  the  world  of  sense. 

The  story  of  Faust's  compact  with  the  devil, 
of  Gretchen's  love  and  death,  have  become  the 
common  property  of  the  civilized  world.  It  is 
this  first  part  which  is  Faust  to  the  great  majority  ; 
the  Gretchen  episode  has  come  to  be  looked  upon 
as  the  complete  tragedy. 

Yet  it  is  not  thus  that  the  whole  plan  can  be 
understood.  It  was  long  the  fashion  to  regard 
the  Second  Part  as  unintelligible,  as  the  over- 


OLD  AGE  165 

abstract  and  too- allegorical  production  of  an  old 
man ;  but  patient  investigation  has  explained 
much  that  was  obscure,  and  proved  more  and 
more  the  organic  unity  of  the  whole. 

There  is  a  parallelism  in  the  two  parts :  the 
incidents  and  characters  of  the  first  are  reflected 
in  the  second  on  a  higher  plane.  Helena  in  the 
second  part  corresponds  to  Gretchen  in  the  first, 
the  classical  Walpurgisnacht  to  the  Northern,  and 
Faust  himself  has  reached  a  higher  stage  of  his 
development.  The  first  part  represented  the 
microcosm  of  the  individual  ;  in  the  second  the 
scope  is  extended,  and  the  picture  is  of  the 
macrocosm  of  society. 

Of  the  gradual  growth  of  Faust  something  has 
been  said  in  the  course  of  the  Life.  Four  stages 
of  its  evolution  are  to  be  noted.  The  first,  com- 
monly known  as  the  Urfaust,  was  the  original 
form,  which  probably  was  written  during  the 
closing  years  of  the  last  Frankfort  time,  in 
1773-75,  and  which  is  preserved  in  the  copy  of  a 
Weimar  maid  of  honour,  Fraulein  von  Gochhausen ; 
the  second  is  the  Fragment  published  in  1790  ; 
the  third  the  completed  Erste  Teil,  which  ap- 
peared in  1808  ;  and  lastly  the  Zweite  Teil,  which, 
finished  in  1831,  was,  as  we  have  seen,  not  pub- 
lished till  the  year  after  Goethe's  death. 

With  the  completion  of  Faust  Goethe  looked 
upon  his  life's  work  as  ended.  He  told  Ecker- 


1 66  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

mann  that  he  regarded  the  time  that  remained  to 
him  as  a  pure  gift.  Yet  he  worked  on,  dictating 
his  diary,  arranging  his  writings,  reading  and  dis- 
coursing on  the  most  varied  topics,  and  taking  the 
liveliest  interest  in  everything  around  him.  He 
continued  his  correspondence  to  the  end,  his  last 
letter  being  sent  to  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt  on 
March  17,  1832.  He  set  his  house  in  order,  made 
provision  for  those  he  would  leave  behind,  and 
discussed  with  Eckermann  and  Riemer  the  publica- 
tion of  his  posthumous  works. 

Since  the  death  of  his  son  peace  reigned  in  his 
house,  and,  freed  from  conjugal  incompatibility, 
Ottilie  devoted  herself  more  freely  to  the  father- 
in-law  she  genuinely  loved,  as  had  his  wayward 
son.  The  two  boys,  Walter  and  Wolfgang,  their 
grandfather's  delight  and  consolation,  completed 
the  family.  With  them  his  last  birthday  was 
spent  at  Ilmenau,  the  scene  of  many  pleasant 
days,  and  a  place  teeming  with  reminiscences 
that  stretched  back  half  a  century  and  more. 
The  evening  before,  he  ascended  the  Gickelhahn, 
and  found  on  the  walls  of  the  wooden  shooting- 
box  which  crowned  its  highest  point  the  famous 
poem,  "  Uber  alien  Gipfeln  ist  Ruh,"  which  he 
had  written  in  pencil  there  in  1780,  and  renewed 
in  1813.  He  read  the  lines  aloud,  and  repeated 
with  tears  in  his  eyes  the  final  words,  "  Ja  ;  warte 
nur,  balde  ruhest  du  auch  !" 


OLD  AGE  167 

On  March  16,  1832,  he  was  taken  ill,  but  once 
more  his  vigorous  constitution  seemed  likely  to 
carry  him  through,  and  he  appeared  to  be 
gradually  recovering.  However,  a  serious  relapse 
set.  in,  and  on  the  21st,  although  he  did  not  know 
it,  and  talked  cheerfully  of  his  plans  for  the  fine 
April  weather,  the  end  was  near.  He  was  suffer- 
ing from  a  chill,  contracted  by  leaving  an  over- 
heated room,  and  the  lungs  were  fatally  affected. 
He  sat  fully  dressed  in  the  simple  little  bedroom 
leading  out  of  his  Spartan-like  study,  and  thought 
of  continuing  the  work  which  now  at  last  was 
really  over. 

On  the  morning  of  the  22nd  his  strength  was 
waning  fast.  He  sat  in  the  arm-chair  by  his 
bedside,  holding  the  hand  of  Ottilie,  who  in  these 
last  days  was  his  unwearying  nurse  and  atten- 
dant. Partly  slumbering,  partly  wandering  in  his 
thoughts,  he  spoke  of  Schiller,  whose  name,  with 
that  of  Ottilie,  was  constantly  on  his  lips ;  and  of 
a  fair  female  head  of  his  dreams.  Shortly  before 
noon  he  drew  himself  together  in  the  chair,  and 
went  peacefully  to  sleep,  and  those  around  him 
hardly  knew  when  his  spirit  passed  away  for 
ever. 

Whether  his  last  words  were  "  More  light !"  is 
doubtful ;  if  so,  they  were  a  simple  direction  to 
his  servant  to  open  the  second  shutter.  His  last 
utterance  appears  to  have  given  no  such  oppor- 


168  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

tunity  to  a  melodramatic  sentiment  he  would  have 
been  the  first  to  deprecate,  but  to  have  been 
one  of  simple  human  affection,  "  Gieb  mir  dein 
Patschhandchen "  (Give  me  your  little  hand), 
addressed  to  Ottilie,  the  comfortress  of  his  last 
moments. 

He  was  buried  in  the  ducal  vault,  whither  the 
remains  of  Schiller  had  been  removed,  and  where 
Karl  August  rests  beside  the  two  most  famous  of 
his  subjects. 

So  Goethe  passed  away,  in  the  eighty-third  year 
of  his  age,  after  a  life  full  of  honours,  and  one  of 
unremitting  labour  in  the  pursuit  of  those  ideals 
whose  attainment  seemed  to  him  the  most  worthy 
object  of  human  endeavour.  He  passed  through 
many  phases  in  the  course  of  his  lifelong  develop- 
ment, and  underwent  those  changes  of  view  which 
are  the  very  condition  of  intellectual  growth. 
What  seemed  good  to  the  Frankfort  youth  was 
no  longer  the  ideal  of  the  mature  man,  but 
through  all  there  is  a  wonderful  unity  of  purpose, 
a  fearless  marching  forward  to  the  exploitation 
of  the  best  that  lay  in  his  own  soul. 

He  has  been  called  the  apostle  of  self-culture, 
but  it  was  a  self-culture  not  for  self,  but  for  the 
common  good.  He  was  not  an  exponent  and 
preacher  of  the  doctrine  of  art  for  art's  sake,  or 
culture  for  culture's  sake,  but  of  the  doctrine  that 
each  of  us  has  powers,  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of 


OLD  AGE  169 

each  one  to  develop  those  powers  to  the  utter- 
most. 

All  in  due  place  and  each  to  his  vocation  :  he 
had  examined  himself  in  his  youth,  and  found 
that  the  thing  that  lay  in  him  was  the  myste- 
rious gift  of  poetic  creation,  and  the  force  that 
lay  in  him  impelled  him  to  travel  the  furthest 
possible  along  what  he  held  to  be  his  predestined 
path. 

With  a  power  of  detachment  which  gave  him  a 
wonderful  capacity  of  judging  himself  as  well  as 
others  objectively,  while  at  the  same  time  it  gave 
rise  to  the  so  frequently  repeated  charge  of  cold- 
ness and  indifference,  he  saw  in  himself  one  link 
in  the  endless  chain  of  development,  and  held  the 
cultivation  of  that  part  of  the  universal  whole 
which  lay  in  his  own  soul  to  be  his  first  and  most 
immediate  duty.  If  this  be  selfishness,  it  is  the 
highest  type  of  selfishness,  a  selfishness  that 
were  well  to  be  imitated  ;  for  only  through  the 
portals  of  self  can  we  pass  out  to  the  aid  of  our 
fellows. 

To  this  conception  of  the  primal  duty  of  the 
cultivation  of  self  is  due,  too,  what  we  might  call 
the  honesty  of  his  literary  work,  in  that  his 
literary  profession  was  at  the  same  time  the  faith 
by  which  he  lived.  Art  was  not  for  him  some- 
thing that  lay  outside  the  artist,  but  something 
that,  proceeding  from  within,  modified  the  whole 


170  LIFE  OF  GOETHE 

man  and  his  whole  life,  making  of  that  life  itself 
his  greatest  work  of  art. 

This  desire  to  "  raise  the  pyramid  of  his  exist- 
ence "  as  high  as  possible  came  to  him  in  youth, 
and  accompanied  him  throughout  his  long  career. 
Thus  life  and  works  are  with  him  intimately  and 
inseparably  bound  up,  and  of  Goethe  himself 
almost  more  than  of  any  writer  are  his  own  words 
true  : 

"  Wer  den  Dichter  will  verstehen, 
Muss  in  Dichters  Lande  gehen." 

For  sixty  years  he  was  the  most  famous  writer 
among  all  German-speaking  peoples,  for  more 
than  half  that  time  the  leading  man  of  letters  of 
the  world  ;  to-day  he  stands  forth  as  the  greatest 
writer  since  Shakespeare,  the  greatest  literary 
interpreter  of  the  modem  world  and  of  modern 
ideas.  What  contemporaries  were  less  able  to 
judge  of,  his  place  in  the  world's  literature,  we 
are  growing  better  able  to  appreciate,  and  the 
voices  grow  ever  more  numerous  that  place  him 
in  the  very  foremost  rank. 

He  found  Germany  in  the  shackles  of  a  hide- 
bound literary  conventionality,  borrowed  from 
France,  and  upheld  by  Gottsched  in  the  capacity 
of  a  self-  esteemed  dictator  of  letters ;  he  in- 
augurated that  eruption  known  as  the  Sturm  und 
Drang,  which  struggled  through  license  to  liberty, 


OLD  AGE  171 

and  he  passed  through  it  on  his  triumphant  course, 
as  through  a  mere  phase,  to  found  a  great  classic 
literature,  as  national  and  independent  as  it  became 
cosmopolitan  in  its  interests  and  in  the  respect  it 
commanded. 

Famous  at  twenty-three,  he  pressed  ever  onward 
through  the  manifold  successes  of  a  life  rich  in 
wellnigh  universal  interests,  adding  steadily  to 
the  solidarity  of  his  fame  ;  and  after  having  been 
long  a  classic  in  his  lifetime,  and  the  voice  of  his 
country  and  age,  ended  a  serene  old  age,  with 
spirit  and  energy  unbroken,  by  a  death  that 
caught  him,  as  he  would  have  wished  it,  at  work, 
and  took  him,  seated,  near  the  workshop  where 
his  tools  were  but  laid  down,  not  laid  by  to  rust. 

One  is  always  tempted  to  quote  Goethe  to 
explain  Goethe,  and  our  last  words  shall  be  his 
own — that  translation  of  his  lines  that  Carlyle, 
Scott,  Wordsworth,  and  other  English  admirers 
chose  for  the  seal  they  sent  him  on  his  last 
birthday,  and  which  can  so  fitly  be  applied  to 
him  who  wrote  them  : 

"  Like  as  a  star 
That  maketh  not  haste, 
That  taketh  not  rest, 
Be  each  one  fulfilling  his  God-given  hest." 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

THE  following  brief  bibliographical  note  gives 
the  authorized  editions  of  Goethe's  works 
which  appeared  during  his  lifetime,  together  with 
the  most  authoritative  of  recent  publication,  and 
concludes  with  a  list  of  the  principal  biographies. 
With  the  help  of  the  indications  here  given, 
students  desiring  a  fuller  knowledge  ot  the  im- 
mense Goethe  literature  which  has  arisen,  and 
to  which  each  succeeding  year  makes  important 
additions,  will  have  no  difficulty  in  finding  their 
way  into  the  wide  field  of  Goethe  bibliography. 

COMPLETE  WORKS. 

The  five  following  authorized  editions  of  the 
works  appeared  during  Goethe's  lifetime  and 
under  his  direction  : 

1.  Schriften:  Leipsic,  Goschen,  1787-1790.    8  vols. 

2.  Neue   Schriften:     Berlin,     Unger,     1792-1800. 

7  vols. 

3.  Werke  :  Tiibingen,  Cotta,  1806-1810.    13  vols. 

172 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  173 

4.  Werke :  Stuttgart  and  Tubingen,  Cotta,  1815- 

1819.      20  vols. 

5.  Werke :      Vollstcindige    Ausgabe     letzter     Hand, 

Stuttgart  and  Tubingen,  Cotta,   1827-1830. 
40  vols. 

In  the  preparation  of  this  edition  Goethe 
was  assisted  by  Eckermann  and  Riemer,  who 
in  1832  to  1842  published,  as  his  literary 
executors,  the  Nachgelassene  Werke  in  20  vols., 
thus  bringing  the  whole  edition  up  to 
60  vols. 

The  Hempel  Edition,  published  at  Berlin  in 
1868  and  following  years,  contains  the  Complete 
Works  in  36  vols. 

In  Deutsche  NationaHiteratnr  (edited  by  J. 
Kiirschner)  Goethe's  works,  published  from  1882 
to  1 897,  by  different  editors,  comprise  vols.  Ixxxii. 
to  cxvii. 

The  Standard  Edition  is  now  the  Weimar 
Edition,  Goethes  Werke,  heratisgegeben  im  Auftrage 
der  Grossherzogin  Sophie  von  Sachsen,  Weimar, 
1887  and  following  years,  of  which  close  upon  a 
hundred  volumes  have  appeared,  and  which  is 
still  in  progress. 

BIOGRAPHIES. 

G.  H.  LEWES  :  Life  and  Works  of  Goethe,  3rd  ed., 
1875. 


174  I'IFE  OF  GOETHE 

J.   W.   SCHAEFER  :   Goethes  Leben,   3rd   ed.,    1877. 

2  vols. 

H.  DUNTZER  :   Goethes  Leben,  2nd  ed.,  1883. 
H.  GRIMM  :   Goethe,  5th  ed.,  1 894.   - 
K.  HEINEMANN  :  Goethes  Leben  und  Werke,  2nd  ed., 

1899. 
R.  M.  MEYER:  Goethe,  Berlin,  1895,  2nd  ed.,  1899 

(Geisteshelden  Series). 
A.   BIELSCHOWSKY  :    Goethe  :   sein   Leben   und  seine 

Werke.      Vol.  i.,  Miinchen,   1896;   3rd  ed., 

1902  :  vol.  ii.  left  uncompleted  at  the  recent 

death  of  the  author. 


INDEX 


"  AJA,  FRAU."    See  Goethe's 

mother. 

Allemagne,  De  f,  146 
Altmiihl,  142 
Amor   ah  Landschaftsmaler, 

I2S 

Anna  Amalia,  107,  108,   130, 

..»*> 

Annchen,  50 
Annette,  57 
Annalen,  156 
Anti-Xenien,  139 
Arnim,  Von,  151 
Artern,  i 
Aufgeregten,  132 
Ausgabe  letzter    Hand,    160, 
163 

Balladenjahr,  143 
Basedow,  96 
Bavaria,  142 
Beaumarchais,  94 
Befreiungskriege,  157 
Behrisch,  E.  W.,  58,  59 
Beitrage  zur  Optik,  132 
Bekenntnisse     einer     schonen 

Seele.  64,  141 
Belagcrung   von    Antwerpen, 

137 

Belagerung  von  Mainz,  131, 

156 

Belvedere,  104 
Berlin,  133,  157 
Bertuch,  128 


Bible,  28,  42,  75 
Boccaccio,  132 
Bohme,  Hofrat,  39,  42 
Bohme,  Frau,  56 
Borghese,  Villa,  126 
Borkenhduschen,  105 
Braut  von  Korinth,  143 
Breithoff,  43 
Breitkopf,  57 
Brenner,  122 
Brentano,  Bettina,  151 
Brentano,  Clemens,  151 
Briefe    iiber    die    (isthetische 
Erziehung    des    Menschen, 

1.37 
Briefwechsel  mit  einem  Kinde, 

151 

Brion  family,  70,  75 

Brion,  Friederike,  76-79,  114, 

117 

Brocken, 116 
Briihl,  49 

Buck  des  Timitr,  158 
Buff  family,  86 
Buff,  Charlotte  (Lotte),  86-89, 

92.  93 

Biirgergeneral,  132 
Byron,  159 

Carlsbad,  120,  122,  161 
Carlyle,  159,  171 
Caroline,  Landgravine,  82,  108 
Cellini,   Benvennto,  137 
Charles  VII.,  n 


175 


i76 


INDEX 


Clarchen,  125 

Clavigo,  94 

Coburg,  3 

Confessions.  See  Bekenntnissc 

Constantine,  96,  108,  118 

Cornelia.    See  under  Goethe 

Correspondence  with  Schiller, 

139.  163 
Cotta,  135,  160 
Court  Theatre,  144,  148 

Darmstadt,  82 
Darwin,  155 
Decamerone,  132 
Demetrius,  146 
Derones,  29,  32 
Dichtung  und    Wahrheit,    5, 
102,  125,  140,  141,  155,  156 
Dioskurenbund,  148 
Doges,  city  of,  122 
Dresden,  47,  48 
Duisburg,  116 
Diirer,  30 
Dutch  School,  48 

Eckermann,  105,  162,  165,  166 
Eckermann's       Conversations 

with  Goethe,  140,  162 
Egmont,  100,  102,  125 
Ehrenbreitstein,  88 
Eisenach,  104 
Elberfeld,  96 
Elective  Affinities.    See  Wahl- 

•uerwandtschaften 
Emmendingen,  117 
Epilogzu  Schillers  Glocke,  147 
Epimenides  Envachen,  157 
Erfurt,  152 
Erlkonig,  120 
Erwin  und  Elmire,  100 
Ettersburg,  104 
Euripides,  123 

Fahrgasse,  25 

Farbenlehre,  150,  154 

Faust,  64,  95,  116,  126,  131, 

136,  143,  149,  150,  154,  160, 

163-165 


Feuerkugel,  39 

Flachsland,  Caroline,  82 

Fleischer,  38 

Florence,  126 

Flucht  nach  Aegypten,  161 

Francis  I.,  23,  24 

Frankfort,  i,  n,  12,  14, 16-18, 
23,  24,  26,  31,  36,  38,  41,  56, 
56-59,  65,  68,  80,  81,  88,  93, 
95-100,  102,  108,  117,  125, 
130,  144,  157,  165,  1 68 

Frankfurter  Gelehrte  An- 
zeigen,  94 

Frederick  the  Great,  in 

French  Revolution,   130,  131, 

142.  145 
Frommann,  K.  F.,  152 

Garda,  Lake,  122 

Gartenhaus,  105,  in 

Gasthof  zum  Geist,  71 

Geheimer  Legationsrat,  in 

Geheimnisse,  120 

Geiler  von  Kaisersberg,  42 

Gellert,  43-45.  57 

Gerbermiihle,  157 

German  Universities,  40 

Gickelhahn,  166 

Giessen,  3 

Gochhausen,  Fraulein  von,  95, 

165 

Goethe,  August,  144,  159,  163 
Goethe,  Cornelia,  17,  19,  21, 

49,  62,  81,  83,  95,  117 
Goethe,  F.  G.,  I,  2,  3 
Goethe.  H.  C.,  i 
Goethe,  J.   C.,  3,   5,   25,  40, 

IOO,   III 

Goethe's  mother  ( ' ' Frau  Aja "), 

9,  107,  117,  150 
Goethe,  Walter  and  Wolfgang, 

166 

Goethehaus,  18 
Golden  Bear,  43 
Golden  Lion,  142 
Goldsmith,  75 
Goschen,  133 
Gott,  Gemiit,  und  Welt,  161 


INDEX 


177 


Goiter,  Helden  und  Wieland, 

94 

Gbttingen,  39 
Gottliche,  Das,  120 
Gottsched,  43,  44,  132,  170 
Gott  und  die  Bajadere,  143 
Gotz  von  Berlichingen,  70,  82- 

84,  89-91 
Gretchen    (Frankfort),    32-36, 

38,  50,  55 
Gretchen  (Faust),  79,  95,  164 

Hafiz,  157 
Hamann,  74 
Hammer-Purgstall,  157 
Handschuh,  Der,  143 
Harper,  the,  141 
Harz  Mountains,  45 
Harzreise  im  Winter,  116 
Hatem,  158 
Hiitschelhaus,  10 
Hauptwache,  25 
Heidelberg,  102 
Herder,  68,  71-74,  78,  82,  83, 

91,  112,  113,  146 
Hermann  und  Dorothea,  139, 

141.  143 

Herzlieb,  Minna,  152,  153 
Hexenkiiche,  126 
Heyne,  39 

Hirschgraben,  Grosze,  16 
Hollenfahrt  Christi,  Die,  31, 

64 

Holstein-Eutin,  Prince  of,  71 
Horen,  Die,  135,  137 
Horn,  J.  A.,  58 
Homer,  75,  124,  142 
Humboldt,  Wilhelm  von,  166 

Ilm,  104,  105 
Ilmenau,  112,  116,  166 
Iphigenie,  115,  118,  122,  123 
Italienische  Reise,    126.    156, 

160 
Italy,    3,  7,  46,  99,  113,   119, 

I2O,  121,   125,    127,    128,   134 

Jacobi,  96 


Jena,  104,  134,  135,  139,  152, 

160 

Jena,  Battle  of,  149 
Jerusalem,  89 
Joseph,  31 
Joseph  II.,  33,  112 
Jung  Stilling,  69,  70 

Kalb,  Von,  102 

Kampagne  in  Frankreich,  131, 

Kanne,  Doktor,  53 

Kanne,  Frau,  53 

Kant,  146 

Karl  August.      See  Weimar, 

Duke  of 

Karlsschule,  118 
Kathchen.     See  Schonkopf 
Kaufmann,  Angelica,  122 
Kestner,  85-89,  92,  93 
Klettenberg,  S.    K.   von,  64, 

97.  141 
Klinger,  90 
Klopstock,    30,   44,    96,    no, 

146 
Knebel,    K.    L.  von,  96,  97, 

108,  109 
Koch  berg,  115 
Konstablerwache,  25 
Korner,  130,  153 
Kramergasse,  68,  69 
Kraniche  des  Ibykus,  143 
Kunst  um  Alter  turn,  159 

Lahn,  88 

Laokoon,  47 

Laroche,    Frau   von,    88,   97, 

151 

Laroche,  Maximiliane,  88, 151 

Laune  des  Verliebten,  50,  54 

Lauth,  68 

Lavater,  96 

Leiden  des  jungen    Wert/iers, 

9i 

Leipsic,  3,    38-41,    43,   45-47, 

49.  5°.  53-  55.  57-59.  65-67, 
89-  95,  133 
Leipziger  Liederbuch,  54,  56, 

57 


i78 


INDEX 


Lenz,  70 
Lerse,  70 

Lessing,  39,  42,  44,  45,  47,  48 
Liberation,  Wars  of,  153 
Lied  von  der  Glocke,  147 
Lotte.     See  Charlotte  Buff 
Louise,  Duchess,  100, 108,  163 
"  Lover,  The  Capricious,"  54 
Lucretius,  109 
Luise,  Voss's,  142 
Lutherans,  142 
Lutz,  A.  E.,  2 
Lutz,  S.,  2 

Magus   of    the    North.      See 

Hamann 
Mahomet,  95 
Mainz,  97,  130 
Maildnderin,  Schiine,  126 
Mann  vonfiintzigjahren,  161 
Maria  (Gotz),  79 
Marie  (Clavigo),  79 
Marienbad,  161 
Marienbader  Elegie,  162 
Martial,  138 
Meissen,  41 

Merck,  59,  82,  83,  88,  89,  94 
Messias,  31,  96 
Metamorphose    der   Pftaneen, 

132,  155 

Meyer,  R.  M.,  7 
Meyer,  122,  145 
Michaelis,  39 

Michel  von  Kriiger,  Duke,  51 
Miedings  Tod,  Auf,  120 
Mignon,  141,  151 
Milan,  126 

Mitschuldigen,  Die,  55 
Moravians,  64 
Moritz,  122 
Morphologic,  Zur,  155 
Moser,  97 
Miiller,  120 
Musenalmanach,  138,  143 

Nachgelassene  Werke,  163 
Naples,  124 
Napoleon,  150,  153,  158 


Naliirliche  Tochte.r,  145 
Naturwissenschaft,  £ur,  155 
Nausikaa,  124 
Netherlands,  125 
Neue  Schriften,  133 
Newton,  154 

Odyssey,  124 

Oeser,  A.  F.,  46,  49,  65 

Oeser,  Friederike,  65 

Offenbach,  99 

Orestes,  118 

Ossian,  75 

Ottilie,  159,  166-168 

Palladio,  122 

Paris    on    the    Plesse.       See 

Leipsic 

Patriotische  Phantasien,  97 
Pfarrhaus  (Sesenheim),  76 
Pleissenburg,  49 
Plessing,  116 
Poems,  Miscellaneous,  31 
Pompeii,  124 
Propertius,  109 
Propylden,  Die,  145 
Pylades,  118 

Racine,  28 
Rauber,  130 

Reichskammergericht,  84 
Reineke  fucAs,  132 
Rhine,  96 
Richter,  49 
Riemer,  163,  166 
Rietschel,  148 
Riggi,  Maddalena,  126 
Romantic  School,  141,  151 
Rome,  122,  124,  126,  138 
Rdmische  Elegien,  131,  137 
Rudolstadt,  130 

Sachsenhausen,  25 
Salzmann,  70,  142 
Saturnalia,  138 
Saxony,  Grand- Duchy  of,  104 
Schatzgrdber,  143 
Schellhorn,  2 


INDEX 


179 


Schiller,    113,    123,    125,    129, 

130,  133-139,  141,  143.  I44. 

146,  148-150,  167,  168 
Schiller,  Correspondence  with 

Goethe,  139,  163 
Schlosser,  J.   G. ,  21,  49,   50, 

58,  81,  89,  95,  117 
Schonemann,  Frau,  98 
Schonemann,      Lili,     98-101, 

114,  117 
Schonkopf,  49,  50,  53,  54,  57, 

65.  114 

Schriften,  133 

Schroter,  118 

Scott,  159,  171 

Seidel,  120 

Sesenheim,  70,  77-80,  117 

Seven  Years'  War,  23 

Shakespeare,  75,  82,  83 

Sicily,  124 

Silesia,  Duke  of,  130 

Sonet  te,  152 

Sorrento,  124 

Sprichwortlich,  161 

Spriiche,  161 

Stael,  Madame  de,  146 

Stein,  Baron  von,  114 

Stein,  Charlotte  von,  114,  118, 

120,  123,  126,  127,  163 
Stilling.     See  Jung. 
Stock,  46 

Stolberg,  Counts,  99 
"  Storm  and  Stress,"  90,  91,  95, 

118,  130,  170 
Strada,  125 
Strasburg,  57,  67,  68,  75,  78, 

80,  117 
Sturm    und     Drang.        See 

"  Storm  and  Stress." 
Sturmer  und  Drdnger,  90,  91, 

99 

Stuttgart,  118,  134,  160 
Suleika,  158 

Switzerland,  letters  from,  117 
Switzerland,  80,  99,    117-119, 

143 

Tagebuc/ier,  156 


I    Tasso,  115,  119,  124,  131 

Taucher,  Der,  143 
!    Tauris,  122 

Terzinen.  bei  der  Betrachtung 
von  Schillers  Sch'ddel,  147 

Testament,  New,  30,  31 

Testament,  Old,  30,  31 

Teutsche  Haus,  86,  87 

Teutsche  Merkur,  94 
!    Textor,  C.  E.  ,  5,  144 
i    Textor,  J.  W.,  5 
I    Thalehrenbreitstein,  151 

Theresa,  Maria,  34 

Thoranc,  Count,  25,  26 

Thiiringer  Wald,  104 

Tiefurt,  104 

Timur,  158 

Tischbein,  122 

Toggenburg,  ftitter,  143 

Trilogie  der  Leidenschaft,  162 

Triumph  der  Empfindsamkeit, 
92 

Troost,  69 

Tubingen,  160 

Uber  alien  Gipfeln,  119,  166 
Ulrike  von  Levetzow,  162 
Unger,  133 

Unterhaltungen  deulscherAus- 
gewanderten,  132,  157 

VenetianischeEpigramme,  131 
|   Venice,  122,  130,  131 
1   Verona,  122 

Vesuvius,  124 

Vicar  of  Wakefield,  75 

Voigt,  154 

Voltaire,  100,  in 

Vor  spiel   xur    Eroffnung  des 
Weimarischen        Theaters, 

145 

Voss,  142 
Vulpius,  Christiane,  128,  129, 

131,  144,  147,  149,  150,  158, 


WahlverwanJtschaften,    152, 
160 


i8o 


INDEX 


Wallenstein,  139,  144 

W alpurgisnaaht ,  165 

Wanderers  Sturmlied,  81 

"Wanderer,  The,"  81 

Was  wir  bringen,  144 

Weidenhof,  Zum,  2 

Weimar,  93,  95,  100,  102,  104- 
107,  109,  in,  113,  115,  118, 
120,  124-127,  129,  134,  144, 
146,  148-151,  159,  160 

Weimar,  Duke  Karl  August, 
96,  97,  105,  107,  109-112, 
117,  118,  120,  127,  130,  163, 
168 

Werner,  Zacharias,  152 

Werther,  84,   89,  91-94,  no, 

IS2-  15.3 

Westostlicher  Divan,  157 
Wetzlar,  3,  84,  86,  88,  89,  91, 

iSi 

Weyland,  75 

Wieland,  44,  94,  107, 109, 113, 
158 


Wilhelm  Meisters  Lehrjahre, 
64.  116,  133,  137,  139,  140, 
1 60 

Wilhelm    Meisters    Wander- 

jahre,  152,  160,  161 
Willemer,  Marianne  von,  157, 

158 

Winckelmann,  46,  145 
Winckelmann  und  sein  Jahr- 

hundert,  145 
Winkler,  49 
Wordsworth,  171 

Xenien,  138 
Xenienkampf,  139 

Zacharia,  51 
Zahme  Xenien,  161 
Zauberlehrling,  143 
Zeil,  25 

Zelter,  147,  163 
Zueignung,  120 


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